


Icarus

by LanxBorealis



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Abuse, Action/Adventure, Airships, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Anachronism, Angst, Bill Cipher is a Jerk, Captain Bill Cipher, Character Death, Child Murder, Dark, Depressed Dipper Pines, Dipper gives 0 fucks, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Flying, Greek Mythology Influences, Inhuman Bill Cipher, Insane Bill Cipher, Kid Dipper Pines, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Moral Dilemmas, Murder, No Sex, Nonbinary Bill Cipher, One-Sided Attraction, Past TadBill, Pedophilia, Physical Abuse, Psychological Torture, Public Humiliation, Quests, Sassy Dipper Pines, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Torture, Unrequited Love, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 21:28:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 43,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6301066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanxBorealis/pseuds/LanxBorealis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They said the Golden Devil was a bastard among the skies.<br/>They said the Golden Devil was a monster among men.<br/>They said the Golden Devil was a beast with no heart.</p><p>Dipper knew the warnings, knew the legends, knew the stories, but he had paid no heed to them.</p><p>Not until everything around him was burning in a torrent of cobalt flames.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Κατάβαση

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck me for writing this piece of shit how unoriginal can i get
> 
> Least I edited it this time. Still if you see mistakes tell me.

The ground beneath him rocked back and forth, causing his gut to spiral wildly with the changes of the currents ripping past the battered and flimsy wood cocooning him. His pasty skin was battered with the frigid air seeping through the holes and cracks, drenching him to the bone with chills.

Dipper did not know how exactly he got in this sort of situation, did not know how the Heavens could be so cruel making this fate befall him, and did not know how in the Heavens or on the Earth he could ever hope to escape it.

The small boy shivered, his skin prickled from the abuse of the air, and tried to snuggled deeper into the ratty clothes hanging from his body, abused by travel and worn by time. He tucked his chin down into his chest, hunching his shoulders up, and allowed his greasy, chestnut hair to fall and cover his eyes, unbound by the bandanna that had always kept it up and out of his face, the gift made by his dear sister stolen by the firmament. His eyes pulsated, raw and tired from cold tears that had previously shed, dry shells of sorrow cracking across his skin almost painfully. Dipper gritted his teeth together tightly and he swore that he would end up cracking them if he kept the torment on his gums up, however, Dipper found his care for his health diminishing rapidly as he struggled to hang onto his last scraps of warmth already slipping away- a ghost through a graveyard of the follies he had made that had him landed in the wretched cell he was trapped in.

Then again, could any of the blame truly be pinned on him? He had not expected pirates, did not see them sneak up from the right, bursting out of the cloud cover, ship glittering gold like a second, brighter star setting the grand blue skies on fire. The shine and shadow had fallen across his family's vessel, tearing it in two with force that neither the Heavens nor the Earth could comprehend. Caterwauls from his family had rung out in the clear, open air, ringing alongside the smoking echoes of zephyr being shredded by large spheres of metal. Flames and bits of his home, his family, and his life crumbled to pieces and nothing met his bare back as he tumbled head over heels into the deep void of the unforgiving firmament….

Dipper ran his fingers through his hair, his teeth digging deep grooves into his bottom lip as he blinked fast, as if to beat back the tears already bubbling in his eyes. He still could not quite grasp what had happened- caught by great, golden angels who as it turned out, were not angels at all. No, they had been devils in disguise with grinning fangs and flashing eyes, nearly ripping his arms out of their sockets as they gripped him hard, carrying him up and up, past the stars and straight into the belly of a fiery beast who knew nothing of decency or matters of the soft human heart.

And now he was here and by the looks of it, left to rot and fester away in the near dark- only strands of golden light giving him any sight at all.

Dipper doubled over, his grief and anger overtaking him in a hot rush and without a thought, the boy stumbled and jerked to his feet, his fists flying against the hard metal and brass of the small, cramped cell he was in, causing it to reverberate dully.

Mabel. Great Uncle Stanley. Great Uncle Stanford. His parents…

Caught by the great beast underfoot, taken in by the plains of the Earth, nothing more than bloody smudges and bits of bone in an expanse of greenery so vast, not even the Heavens could touch it.

Dipper no longer even cared of the orders he had been given before by those devilish angels- he did not care of their comfort, of their wishes and without a second thought, he screamed.

It was pure pain ripping through his chords, raising his usually cracking timbre into an abnormal and screeching pitch that sung of human suffering and anguish; an a capella of misery and agony that could shake the very stars out of their thrones in the sky, one that could bring gods to their knees and cause the devil themself to cover their ears at the abominable sound.

And indeed, the devil was covering their ears.

"Would you stop that insistent and horrid  _racket!"_

Staccato clicks of heels plated in greed and malevolence clacked against the hard, rotting boards of the floor, shining brighter than what should be natural in the little light given, gleaming like counterfeit golden coins.

Dipper refused to silence his fury, a lament of sorrow of tears and snot and saliva dribbling down his face.

Yet, he refused to turn his tumultuous eyes from the creature before him, determined to memorize each and every vivid detail now, unlike before when first thrown at the creature's feet.

His captor's face was as sharp as a blade, neither masculine nor feminine simultaneously. Their skin was smooth and dark, their complexion almost unearthly, nearly perfect save for the fool's gold of freckles splattered across their cheeks and nose. Their golden hair was wild and messy, unable to be completely stuffed in their feathered hat, tumbling down their shoulders and back like a crashing waterfall. One eye shone from the dark pit of their socket, the color of hardened amber and just as sweet; holding nothing but malice and contempt for anything that could be considered good in the world. The other eye, though covered partially by their tangled hair, was clearly fake and nowhere near human, fashioned after a spyglass instead of a normal eye. Dipper's own ugly and splotchy face reflected back at him in the mirror. Wires and bolts stuck out of the copper shelling haphazardly and Dipper found himself grateful to be unable to see where it was fastened to their socket.

Though Dipper could not make their clothes out through the musty darkness, the wings secured to their shoulders glittered like gems, painting them in a yellow light that allowed him to see a glimpse of intricate yellow cut just below their collar bone in what could only be a corset. More freckles decorated at least one of their long legs, the right covered by a veil of darkness while the left had half of the little winking lights snuffed out by what he figured to be fishnets.

Dipper grimaced at the other- or at least- grimaced as well as he could while still spilling forth the most awful sound he could ever dream of making from his open gullet. The golden devil sneered at him and, faster than a viper, unlocked the door to his cell and snatched his lips up in one fluid motion of their fingers. Their long claws dug into the sides of his lips and his cheeks, slicing through layers of skin and causing blood to bead. The sound of Dipper's anguish was drowned out by his whimpers of pain as his teeth clacked together painfully. The boy was unable to even flinch back, the creature's grip on him much too strong.

"I said," they said, enunciating each word clearly, their voice high-pitched and unplaceable beyond  _too human,_ "to. Silence. Your.  _Racket."_

Dipper nearly sneered at them when his snot dripped onto their fingers, causing them to recoil in utter disgust, wiping their fingers against their bodice.

Dipper's heart did not just skip one beat, but at least two when he found his eyes falling on the fact that the door to his cell was still wide open and without a moment's hesitation, without a single plan formed in his mind, the boy dived forwards, using both hands to shove the winged demon out of his way and stumbling out of the small cell, whipping around and slamming it closed. He caught the barest strands of disbelief and rage brewing in that amber eye, cutting through the shadows of his doubt and without a second glance backwards, the boy turned on his heel and  _ran._

Dipper's heart slammed against his ribcage, trying to squeeze through the small gaps and burst through his chest. Hysteria danced wildly in his mind, tossing what was left of his sanity out the port windows. His feet slammed hard against the boards and if Dipper had not practically lived his entire life above the clouds in an endless sky and an endless void beneath him, he would've been afraid of falling through.

His legs were already burning, the muscles trembling in exertion as he tipped himself forwards, swearing he could already feel the creature's claws digging into his skin again, ripping him into bloody shreds….

Dipper jumped at the sound of snarling from what he vaguely remembered to be the captain behind him. He had not caught their name when thrown before them, too caught up in the memory of the sight of a small, female shape below him falling, her brown hair a halo around her head, mocha eyes gleaming in awe-inspiring terror as she stretched her hands out to reach for him, his own arms too short to take her hands in his and the wind howling through his own ears, drowning out any words shared with him.

Dipper's eyes narrowed into bitter slits, overflowing with tears again. As much as he would love to know the name of the monster that had ripped everything from him, he needed to abscond quickly.

And that meant staying uncaught.

Dipper slammed face first into the wooden door at the end of the hallway. Heavy, raspy breathing reverberated through the wood planks behind him and the  _clack clack clack_ of staccato heels was a death march to his funeral. His hands scrabbled over wood, splinters spiking through the pads of his fingers as he found the rusting copper handle.

"You little  _brat!"_ they snarled. Dipper could nearly feel their hot breath billow across his face and the boy resisted peeking behind him to see how close the other was.

He threw the door open.

Claws brushed against his rounded shoulders and Dipper tucked his chin into his chest as he slammed the door closed on them again.

An abhorrent screech splintered through the tense air, completely shattering it. Dipper covered his mouth in horror at the sight of two spindly fingers falling on his side of the door,  _plop plop._ Thick black blood pooled around both digits as the twitched and squirmed before falling still.

Dipper's gut tumbled as he tore his eyes away from the gory sight, unable to ignore the golden devil's shrieks of anger-laced pain as he ran down the corridor presented before him. The portholes opened the skies to him, true white shining through and nothing else, patterning the dark floor with wavy impressions. Sharp pants tore past his chapped lips and the scraping of the door behind him along with another roar sent Dipper in a frizzy. He pumped his legs faster, his arms snapping back and forth, shooting forward like a bullet. His hands slammed against the next door and this time, he did not waste any time to throw the door open, close it and this time, slam the deadlock shut.

 _Smack._ The entire door shuddered as the golden devil slammed into it, still screeching their anger and loathing. Through a small hole in the door, a single amber eye gleamed, small tears of stinging pain clinging to their long black lashes.

"You're  _dead,"_ they hissed, "you're  _dead,_ kid!" The eye flashed and disappeared and the entire door shook as the creature slammed against it. The hinges groaned and the wood whimpered under the abuse.

The same abuse Dipper would surely be put under if he allowed himself to be caught.

Dipper stumbled back, crying out in alarm when his heels met with a hard, raised surface. He fell backwards against a winding stairs, his bones blooming bruises at the landing. His body curled awkwardly and he grunted loudly.

The door before him shuddered again and the sound of wood splitting splintered the thin air. Two fingers were thrust through and fell to the ground, no longer twitching, yet still secreting black blood.

"Look what you did to me!"

Dipper screamed, shoved himself up fully, and turned to lumber up the steep steps, his hands slamming against the railing either side of him. His toes stubbed into the wood and flared with sudden pain, but he never slowed down. Behind him, the door cried out one last time before giving out entirely and an erratic  _clack clack clack_ echoed behind him.

Dipper reached the top of the stairs and threw the third door open, only to be blinded by white and blue, the thick reek of steam being belched into the sky filling his nose.

Claws brushed against Dipper but once again, the boy darted out from beneath the damning grasp out onto the open deck. Honeyed wood dusted with old blood from battles and flecks of pompous gold glittered underfoot. Thick masts seemed to break through the atmosphere above him, grand black flags edged in gold with a triangular emblem in the center catching the wind, kept aloft by the steam pouring from the stern.

The crew did not seem to notice Dipper at first, manning their stations with a natural finesse one only had when living their entire life in the hold of the firmament. Like the creature behind him, they were clothed in rich golds, coppers, blacks, and browns, skirts flying in the air, thick golden, metal wings fastened to their backs, powered by what Dipper could only describe as  _magic._

Dread settled over Dipper's mind and realization ripped through him with plated fangs.

_He was falling, faster and faster, the small shape of his sister not getting any closer as he struggled to reach her. Her blood-red mouth was opened in a scream he could not hear and his pasty hands were extended to capture her's._

_If they were to say goodbye to the Earth, they should do it together, just as they were when meeting her for the first time._

_However, that did not happen._

_Claws pierced him, glittering feathers filled his peripherals, and his arms were nearly yanked out of his socket. Suddenly, Mabel was growing smaller and suddenly, wind was no longer singing his eulogy._

Staring up at those golden wings, Dipper barked a laugh.

Oh, he had been caught by angels all right. The Golden Angels. Scourges of the sky, monsters greater than any bedside story could fathom. As beautiful as they were deadly, as bright as they were bloody.

Dipper didn't pay attention to the eyes staring at him, to the crescendoing  _clack clack clack_ behind him, nor the terror still flowing through his veins. His eyes were glued to the small boats already hanging off the edge precariously, already readied for when the moment came to strike, the crew could escape.

Dipper grinned bitterly. Or him, for that matter.

He raced to the edge of the ship.

"What are all of you guys doing  _floating_ there?! Get him!"

_Clack clack clack clack_

Dipper ducked as one of the crewmembers tried to snatch him up, using his forwards momentum to roll head over heels and spring right back up on his heels, slamming his feet hard on the deck and sprinting faster than ever before. Screeches of distress met his ears as he reached the rowboat and Dipper pulled himself inside it, hands slamming against buttons and levers on the console.

"C'mon, go, go, go…." he gasped. His chest heaved and bullets ripped through the air around him, one nearly taking his ear off. He ducked down lower, the jeers of the crewmates growing louder as a terrible voice rose above them all, snarling like some sort of demon, humanity drained from it entirely.

A black, bloodied hand grabbed the edge of the boat and Dipper screamed in shock, his hands trembling harder. A twisted face rose above the wave of the wood, their fake eye gleaming brightly in the sharp light of the bright day, the other smoldering in pure loathing. Their hat bobbed on their head, great crimson plumes fluttering in the wind. Catching sight of the two missing fingers balanced inside the trifold, Dipper nearly puked at the sight.

"You're not getting away from me, brat!" An arm stretched towards him, the claws left on their hand slicing through the air to get to them. They struggled to pull themselves up, other hand shaking at their flimsy grip.

Before Dipper could retort, the boat groaned and tipped over. Dipper screamed in alarm as he rolled and slammed into the opposite side of the boat. Using the side, he picked himself up, refraining from peering behind him, not wanting to see the open skies beyond. He continued to try and slam his hand against the console, needing to start the engine, needing to escape. His heart palpitated wildly, having moved to lodge in his throat again, nearly spilling forth from his mouth in a desperate attempt to flee.

The monster before him grinned in triumph as they pulled themselves fully into the boat, larger than life and bleeding all they could from it as well. Their slitted black skirt billowed in the wind and they shined in a way no shadow should ever be allowed to shine- a veil of black detailed with golden gems and flecks- a true diamond in the rough.

But there was nothing beautiful, nothing pure about that too-wide grin splitting their face in two, a forked tongue darting out to lap at its lips. Their eye was larger than the sun and just as hot, searing him and blackening him to the marrow.

"Got you!" they crowed, reaching to their belt to pull out an ivory blade of sorts with their unwounded hand, "Finally got you, you fucking  _brat._ I'm going to have fun  _slaughtering_ you."

Dipper's hand fell from the console, but no dread flitted across his face- just sickened and sudden glee.

"That's too bad then."

And without a second's hesitation, Dipper turned and flung himself off the side of the airship.

Dipper nearly laughed at the expression on the creature's face as he plummeted, nearly hitting the side of the almost too-grand vessel. His organs smashed against his front as he free fell, wind whistling past his ears just like before. And just like before, it seemed his entire world was crumbling around him.

However this time, there were no tears being brushed off his cheeks by the firmament's cool fingers, no horror in his heart, no dread in his belly. Any form of self-preservation died within him as he fell towards a foggy bottom with seemingly no end, returning from whence he was born.

A smile graced Dipper's face and he couldn't help but feel peace settle into his heart as he closed his eyes fully. Nothing played behind his eyes, his terror dissipating from his veins, left behind on the golden airship slowly becoming a speck in the sky. He was  _free._

Freedom was not gifted to him for long. Dipper's calm peace was shattered by the familiar feeling of claws digging into his shoulders, just as before, this time hooking into his flesh, causing a lost scream to rip from his abused lungs. His arms were nearly torn from his sockets and when Dipper's eyes flashed open, the only sight he was greeted with was a cloud of golden feathers beating around his face, a few shedding off and twirling away. Dipper squirmed as he was yanked into a hard chest, face buried into a dark collar bone splattered with gold, arms pinned between him and the golden devil. The arms that wrapped around him were ironclad and more restraining than any cell that he could ever be wrestled into.

Dipper's gut dropped as the creature changed their path, flying upwards, flying faster than the other crewmembers had, the hum of magic Dipper expecting never meeting his ears.

It was not natural. It was not possible. It couldn't be.

It was just like before. That had not been a nightmare or a trick of his terror-filled mind.

Dipper's screams may have been lost, but he still kicked and squirmed in the creature's grasp, his ratty brown boots connecting hard against bone only hidden by a sinewy layer of muscle, peppering small blooming bruise after small blooming bruise over and over again. If the creature was saying or shouting anything, it was lost to the rushing wind around them as they flew back to the airship high above. Dipper bit hard enough into the knob of bone in their chest to feel ligament against his teeth and for black, foul tasting blood to trickle down his throat, making him cough and gag in repulsion.

Dipper's arms pinwheeled as they were released and his cry of surprise rang in his own ears as he was dropped unceremoniously back onto the deck right in a ring created by the other pirates, making escape impossible.

His head swam, dark spots waltzing across his vision, and he gripped his skull tightly as a migraine sparked through him, trying to crack him in two. He wished it would.

Dipper blinked rapidly, a slow ache traced up his spine by lackadaisical talons and the boy slowly sat up, folding his legs beneath him. The shoulders and collar of his ratty shirt had been torn to shreds and peeled down his body, his skin shining purple and red in the bright light, new blood oozing from the new wounds he had gained.

_Thunk._

Dipper shivered, old terror setting a new flame in his gut and the boy trembled violently as he slowly stared up at the devil that had taken him. Wings- real, huge angelic wings glittering with long honeyed feathers folded behind their back, twitching in agitation. A victorious jeer distorted their dark face, teeth yellowed and crooked in their black, grimy maw and the creature guffawed- a sound like metal screeching against metal in a bloody battle that held no mercy for any form of life at all.

"Too bad indeed," they snickered, swaggering forwards.

They raised their foot and before Dipper could even think about scrambling away, it came down hard on his leg.

Dipper screeched as the heel of their boot sliced through his skin, slipping down the left side of his bone, rupturing the flesh. Bright blood gushed out of the wound and rolled out onto the already stained planks, seeping through the wood.

Dipper's hands flew to the wound, cupping it as if to hold the blood pouring out inside. His mouth was open in a silent shout and saliva bubbled and spilled down his chin, his already splotchy face reddening even more. Dried snot cracked over his upper lip, but he couldn't bring himself to even try to clean himself up. Liquid rubies stained his hands and Dipper whimpered as a hand caked in dry blood gripped his chin, yanking his face upwards. Dipper squeaked, startled, as his own fat, disgusting face was reflected back to him. He looked like hell.

"I've gotta say!" they cackled, "you put up more of a fight than I had expected! And lemme tell ya, it's pretty fuckin' hard to surprise someone like me!"

The crew around them sneered and stamped their feet in agreement, but also confusion. Glances were exchanged and hand motions were spun.

"Especially the fingers part! I mean, I would've accepted a normal handshake but…." At this, they reached up into their hat with their free hand to pull out the lost limbs out of the hat that had, miraculously, stayed on their head. They shook them in Dipper's face, both hanging like limp fish, no blood trickling out of them anymore, "this works too!"

Dipper flinched back from their insanity, preferring to back and cower right at the feet of some other crew member than be any closer to the creature before him.

Their wings twitched again, their previous wild grin melted into a cool, knowing smirk, and Dipper could practically feel the cogs in their brain ticking as they thought.

Dipper did not wish to know what they were thinking of.

"Y-you're i-insane!" Dipper finally choked out. He tucked his legs close to his body, ignoring the agony that flared in his right leg.

They threw their head back and laughed again and this time, the rest of the crew joined in, all uncertainty draining from them. Dipper clasped his hands over his ears at the horrid, dissonant sound, different tones and timbres clashing together in a noise most unholy- a demon's orchestra.

"And your point is… what exactly?"

Dipper squealed as wickedly thin fingers wrapped around his forearms, dragging him forwards. He kicked out, trying to catch one of the heeled boots the creature wore, but could not knock their feet out from underneath them. With a quick, almost unnatural twist of their body, and with a throw stronger than what their thin frame should allow, Dipper was flung forwards, his face smashing against the ground. A sickening squelch of his nose cracking brought another roar of laughter from the crewmates and Dipper found himself simply laying on the warm planks, fingers twitching, but nothing more than that. He did not answer their rhetorical question.

"Out of spirit already?" they cackled behind him after a few more beats of Dipper refusing to move, "C'mon, kid! That can't be  _all_ you got…"

The crew around the two booed at Dipper.

Dipper sat up on his forearms and rolled back over onto his back, sitting up slowly. Blood trickled down his nose in lazy rivers, curling around his lips and dripping off his chin. His eyes burned and puffing out his cheeks, the boy spat at the golden devil.

The crew around the two stomped their feet and snorted in anger at the disrespect, no longer booing but calling out for a show of blood, blade, and bone.

The golden-haired creature sneered in disgust as the wad of saliva and blood landed on their shoe and without a second's hesitation, kicked the boy hard in the side, shoving him back over and onto the floor.

"Disgusting…." they said. Another small snicker followed soon after, however, and their disgusted look was replaced by one with absolute joy, "but not what I was expecting! Not at all…. Again!" They stared down hard at Dipper, lips pursed in hard thought, leaning back on their heels and stroking their chin, left hip jutted out.

Dipper's arms trembled beneath his body, his ribs singing their songs of pained bruises. He wished to just let himself collapse, to let his body fall slack. He trembled and sniffed, unable to cry anymore tears, unable to feel anything but the insistent drumbeats of his heart.

"I've gotta say, kid, you sure are a mystery aren't you! Not the standard run-of-the-mill heavy-handed foreshadowing and men in masks either! But a gripping, epic tale of TRAGIC PROPORTIONS!" They threw their arms out, thrusting their face towards the sky in a pose of triumph.

Dipper kept his mouth shut, staring up at the insane creature before him, eyes like wide, dull, copper coins.

"Um, captain?" one of the crew members suddenly piped up- a strange, bottom-heavy, curvy woman whose eyes seemed to smolder like embers and whose short red hair flickered around her round, plump face like curling, dying flames after a raging forest fire. Her thick, painted lips were quirked into a small, pouting frown. A black eyepatch with a small flame insignia covered her left eye, but did nothing to subtract from her beauty, "A- are you-"

The captain whipped around on their heel, eyes glimmering in utter glee, smile stretched out too far to resemble anything remotely human. "Am I what, Pyronica? What were you gonna say?"

"Well, I-"

The captain snapped their fingers loudly, silencing her. "You were gonna suggest letting this little runt join us, weren't you?"

Both Pyronica's and Dipper's mouths dropped in utter bewilderment.

"No!" Dipper and Pyronica both shouted at the same time. Without a glance backwards, the captain pulled out their golden revolver and shot behind them, a small yelp telling them that they did not quite hit the boy. A shame, really.

"Not at all, captain-!" Pyronica stammered. The captain silenced her with a wave of their hand.

"I think it's a great idea! The best you've had yet! Good job, lil' lady!" The captain bounced over to her to playfully ruffle her hair, causing it to stick up in every direction.

"Captain, that's not what I-"

The captain swung around again, dismissing the frowning woman completely in favor to stare down at the cowering brunet, who had long given up trying to scramble away from the mad creature before him, "So what do you say, kid?"

Around the two, the crewmembers muttered uneasily between themselves, but did not speak up or out, glancing amongst themselves, confounded while also peering down at the boy in both thinly-veiled curiosity and open hostility.

Dipper could not help swallowing his bubbling rage and, strangely, humiliation.

"You're insane!" Dipper repeated, "I would never join you! I'd rather  _die!"_

The captain grinned wolfishly and moseyed over to where the boy lay, crouching down on their haunches and grabbing Dipper's face with their unwounded hand. "That's really too bad! I think it'll be a lot more fun keeping you around like some sorta noisy parrot then send you SCREAMING down into an AGONIZING HELL!"

Dipper winced, his shaking hand wiping the spittle that had flown onto his face off. "You'll regret this!" Dipper hissed through his teeth. "You'll regret not killing me! Mark my words!"

Much to Dipper's dismay, the captain dropped him, falling back onto their ass, guffaws spilling messily from their mouth, conducting the laughter from the crew around them.

"Oh, if I didn't know better, I would take you for a comedian rather than a measly  _delivery boy."_

Dipper roared in anger and without a second thought, flung himself forwards to try and grab the captain's throat. The sight of them purple and gasping for air bled into Dipper's mind and his mouth salivated at the thought.

However, the captain was much faster and snapped both his wrists right out of the air, like a flytrap snapping closed on its prey. Dipper shrieked as his hands were plunged downwards in the creature's tight fist, smashing against the ground- not hard enough to split the skin, but just enough to cause a garden of purple blooms to explode across his thin skin and his bones to whine in protest.

"I suggest you watch it, kid," the captain growled low in Dipper's ear, their arid breath billowing against the shell of his ear. "I find you amusing, but I get bored and frustrated with my toys  _very quickly."_

Dipper snorted at that. "You can't threaten someone who wants to die with  _death,"_ he spat, a smug smile quirking his lips.

The captain's grin was predatory, "Now, who said I was speaking of  _death?"_

Dipper gulped, a chill racing up his spine.

The crew members around the two fell silent.

With a fluid motion and with a strength the captain should not possess, Dipper was yanked up by his wrists as the captain stood back up. His toes barely touched the ground and the boy whimpered in pain, the bruises settling in his shoulders screaming as they cried crimson tears. Dipper's tattered shirt fell to rags around him, completely exposing his milky skin.

The captain jeered at the sight- the look on their face completely risque- and Dipper shuddered.

"There are things a lot worse than death.  _So_ much worse! I could bury you in ice till your nipples fall off!" At this, the captain transferred Dipper's wrists in one hand, his other dropping to the brunet's chest to run their claws over one, causing it to stand erect.

Dipper bit back the whimper boiling in the back of his throat, his eyes twitching at the touch.

The captain's grin grew wider at the silence.

"Or perhaps I could peel your fingernails off! Fingernails as short as yours hold no purpose," they continued. "Peel them off with my butter knife, one for each day. And when I run out of fingernails, I could always take your toenails! Perhaps sprinkle them in your soup to eat when they're all gone!"

"You're disgusting!"

The captain laughed again. The crew did not join in this time, instead peering at one another, disturbed but not surprised.

The captain sighed, their chest still trembling in laughter as they dropped Dipper again. This time, Dipper caught himself on the balls of his feet.

"Yes…." they said, stepping back from the boy. They couldn't tear their inquisitive stare away from the brunet. "A little noisy parrot." Their grin never faltered as they spun around on their heel, somehow not falling over as they threw their arms back up into the air.

"Everyone! Welcome the newest member of the crew!"

No one cheered. No one so much as even clapped. They merely continued staring at the captain in abject puzzlement.

If the captain was bothered by their doldrums, they weren't phased. They merely dropped their arms and folded them behind their back, "Well, if that's clear, get back to work!"

The crew startled at the sudden, barked order and scrambled to obey, a few members quickly fidgeting with their fastened wings to get them to open up and with a running start, took back to the skies.

"Except you! Pyronica!"

The woman quickly closed her wings and she fell back onto the vessel with a heavy  _thump._

"Throw this little birdie back down in the brig! He's to stay there until he earns his keep up here."

The woman gave her captain a sharp nod, her eyes glittering with uncertainty. Still, she held the thoughts wanting to spring off her tongue, lips locked tight in a bitter purse. She strode past them, hips swinging and grabbed Dipper's arm, hauling him roughly up to his feet. Dipper stumbled.

The captain gave her a small nod of appreciation and they started to stride away, only to be stopped by the sudden cracking of the boy's voice.

"What's your name?" Dipper asked, trying to break Pyronica's grip. The woman's grasp held steady however and she dug her claws into Dipper's arm, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to carve crescent moons into his forearm.

The captain didn't turn around.

"Bill Cipher, kid. Captain Bill Cipher."

Dipper's hard eyes filled with dread, but no surprise flitted across his face and with one last yank by Pyronica, he was dragged through the wooden door from before.

The last thing Dipper saw of the outside world were the captain's real, glittering, feathered wings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For someone who said they weren't gonna be writing much BillDip I certainly am failing at that.
> 
> I just. I love Steampunk and I love Airships and I love Air Pirates and I just. I couldn't let this go okay and I don't like any of the pirate stuff out for BillDip so if you want something done write gotta do it yourself. Get it. Done write.
> 
> Look its 5 am and I drank 6 cups of coffee go easy on me.
> 
> Anyways, as my wonderful tags said I LiaFT'd this thing meaning that it was SUPPOSED to be a oneshot then flipped me off and turned out to be like this so yeah. Also fun fact: The introduction of Bill Cipher in this mirrors the one in LiaFT. Another fun fact: other things were mirrored too tho that's probably all on accident. Last fun fact: I wrote Dipper at an intermediate age so imagine him however you will. If you wanna be gross like me and imagine him as 12 great for you. If you actually have standards and see him being 18+ good for you having some morals.
> 
> Anyways, I don't know what's exactly going on here but hey it's a pretty read I guess so there you go.
> 
> I guess to keep in the awkward LiaFT spirit, comment/kudos/bookmark if you want me to continue writing/posing this. If I get enough of all three I'll officially work on this as my next multichaptered BillDip fic.
> 
> Saying that however, I am not actually gonna add onto it till KYHMiT is marked as complete so that may take a few weeks but yeah.
> 
> Anyways, sorry if I sounded rude again its like 5 am here and I am jittery so yeah.  
> Thank you for reading this thing I suppose!


	2. Ενδοσκόπηση

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied here's another chapter. Also sorry it's so short.
> 
> Also: Still fuck me for writing this.

Not even the silvery moon hanging fat in the sky gave Dipper a prick of light as he curled up in his cell, the shivers born from the breath of night so much worse than the ones given by the laughter of the day. His skin prickled- every little hair he had standing on end- and he puffed warm air into his cupped hands. He tucked his chin close to his chest in a weak effort to keep warmth within him. He was beyond grateful that he had not been wracked with a cough yet, but he knew it would not be long until he eventually succumbed to the cold.

His small, pink tongue darted out to lap at his dry, chapped lips and Dipper huffed another wisp of heated air at his numbing fingers. Underneath him, his legs groaned with cramps and Dipper found himself facing not his first dilemma of the day; whether he should brave the chills and get up to stretch his abused muscles or whether he should continue to cower and lick his wounds like some common mutt.

Dipper, without a second's hesitation, stood up.

He stumbled horribly, his hands flying down to grip his wounded leg. He struggled not to dig his blunt nails into the clots slowly forming and groaned at the popping of his stiff back. Dipper forced himself to straighten back up, rolling his shoulders and cracking his elbows as he stretched greedily, his muscles lapping up the little release he gave them.

His body pulsated with ache from his multitude of wounds. Though grateful that nothing seemed to be bleeding any longer, he was dreading the next time he would be able to see himself. He did not want to lay his sights upon the islands of blooming purple patterning his knuckles. Nor did he want to see exactly the amount of blood dried on his shoulders.

Dipper shivered and sat back down on the ground. His ribs whined in pain, the internal bruises flaring.

Dipper smiled bitterly, welcoming the heat the pain gifted him at the moment. He curled his legs under him and leaned against the wall again, as far away from the draft from both the cracks in the wood and the cell bars as he could.

Maybe if he were lucky, he would be forgotten down here. If not permanently, perhaps just enough for him to freeze to death at night- face draining of color as all life left it while his lips faded to an icy blue.

One could hope, and after all, in a dreadful situation such as the one he found himself in, hope was really all Dipper could hold on to.

It was quite pathetic.

Dipper sighed, moving to lay down fully. Maybe he could get a few winks of rest- enough to pass a few ticks from the nonexistent clock counting his days down. Dipper rested his cheek against the frigid floor, his hands rubbing at his bare skin over his heart in a futile attempt to warm it for the nth time that night.

Growing up on a measly trading ship, Dipper had not been in many rough patches before. Sure, there was always crossing territory of some polis or another at war- tension would be so thick that he could taste it in the air and the clouds would burst with paranoid warships hungering to tear down a ship that could be classified as  _dangerous,_ if only to give themselves a small pat on the back if only for a few brief moments and get a second's worth of some semblance of peace.

But that had only happened once in all of Dipper's life and, just as of now, he had been beyond terrified.

Of course, the situation he found himself trapped in now was over a thousand times worse but with nothing else to compare it to, what else was he to do?

Dipper found himself into sinking back into those brighter memories. With his family. With the wind blowing through his hair, sky glittering with millions of perfect little gems, cut by the universe herself.

When Mabel would wake him up in the early mornings to play and watch the sky give birth to the next sun, its blood spilling across an endlessly peaceful sky as it tore the firmament apart.

" _You know, I don't think there's a more beautiful sight than a sunrise. Not in the entirety of the world."_

Or, if not Mabel waking him up, his ever so odd Great Uncle Stanley, who would thrust a clipboard and a pen into his hands before he could even utter a yawn and tell him to go check their stocks.

" _And don't forget to check_ three  _times. We don't want a miscount!"_

Dipper smiled fondly at the memory.

Dipper found his thoughts casting out to catch the times his father or mother had come in yelling at him for sleeping in, or shirking work to play, or even trying to throw bits of sticks and small objects at the pipes to hear them sing.

" _Dipper! Stop playing adventurer and go clean the dishes!"_

" _Dipper! Stop throwing things at the pipes! That is very delicate machinery and we don't want to break down in the middle of nowhere!"_

And Great Uncle Ford. Oh, how could he ever forget his Great Uncle Ford? Who sat in his study all day, toiling away at mysteries yet unsolved and monsters yet unseen, coming out to throw a temper tantrum every time the boat radically changed directions, causing him to ruin the drawing he had been working on and for him to yell at whomever was the nearest person to him in that moment.

" _Why do you go and have to do that?! Does anyone on this blasted ship understand how important this work is?! No! No one does! Imbeciles!"_

Dipper wept. His hot tears warmed his cheeks and the sorrow in his gut numbed the chills piercing his skin. He wept till his throat was hoarse and not a sound could be uttered from his chords. He wept till he had no more tears left nor saliva wetting his tongue. The last of his drool dripped from his mouth, sticky strains caught silver by the little moonlight that had decided to finally filter in and stuck to his pants lazily, wet stains growing larger and larger. Dipper was glad to see that the crimson tint in his saliva was gone.

Dipper wiped his nose with the back of his hand, his partially dried snot cracking against his skin and surely giving him cold sores- gifted by the wind's frigid kisses. He grit his teeth and though Dipper wished to weep more, to give more voice to the suffering churning inside him, rocking hard against his walls in a tornado of bitter agony and cold resignation, he simply could not. His voice was stolen by his own doldrums.

So, instead, Dipper climbed up to his feet again, his hands pushing hard against the whistling planks below himself to push himself all the way up. His bones groaned harsh complaints as his shoes scrabbled against the ground and moving his hands to the wall, Dipper moaned softly as his back popped. Hot, stinging feeling rushed back into his legs and a torrent of vertigo hit him as the little he could actually see swirled around him- inky darkness and cold wood. Dipper grunted, avoiding leaning on his wounded shoulders as he panted softly. His leg was still singing a silent song of pain, dry blood chipping off at his movements. Dipper grimaced and leaned his weight onto his other leg, resting his shoulder blades against the wall. The tender skin around the inflicted area flared, but did nothing more. Dipper sighed- a little relieved he did not have to try and stand completely alone.

Dipper turned and glanced out his cell to the empty one across from him. Beyond the creaking of the boat and the whispering of the wind, he could not hear anything at all. He wasn't so sure if it was because all the pirates were asleep or if their rambunctious noises simply did not travel down this far.

Dipper nibbled at his lower lip- only to stop hastily. He had enough wounds as it was, he didn't need to add a hole through his lip to that extensive list.

 _Speaking of which..._ Dipper mulled over. Next time someone- Cipher or perhaps that woman, Pyronica- came down, he needed to ask for some healing. His wounds were begging for medical treatment, whining loud enough to keep Dipper from sleeping.

Then again, Dipper supposed that even without the lacerations he would still be unable to sleep. Even back at home, there were times where the wind's eerie whispers, too quiet to make sense of, kept him awake, along with the foreboding mutters of the whistling planks around him.

Bile rose to Dipper's throat, the sourness burning him like never before. He coughed, spitting it out to the side. His wad of spit did not make it into the hallway however and instead clung to the bars of his cell, trickling down the rusty metal slowly. Dipper's nose scrunched at the sight.

Least it was not red.

Dipper tenderly touched his ribs, which were merely sore now. He was grateful Cipher hadn't broken a rib.

Dipper mulled over his next course of action. Though his tears were dried up, the pangs of sorrow reverberating through him did not lessen.

Musings of escape fluttered through his mind, but Dipper did not give them serious thought. What was the point of escape, after all? His family would still be dead and he would still be in the middle of nowhere.

And, by the sounds of the mad captain up top, Cipher was bound to come after him.

Bitter chuckles slipped out of Dipper's mouth in a single, poisonous breath. There was no point of escape, none at all. He had no one left.

They say that one dies not just once, but twice. When your heart stops beating and your eyes dull... and the last time someone utters your name, and you are left forgotten.

But that was wrong. There was a third way as well.

When no one was left to care about you.

Dipper padded over to the bars of his cell, peering down the thin, rickety corridor. The door with its rusting copper handle was swallowed by thick darkness, the strands of silver light from outside not able to pierce its obsidian shielding.

Dipper raised his hands to loosely wrap them around his cell bars. His fingers tapped against the cool iron and a frown marred his features.

The bars were not wide enough for him to stick his head through. What a shame.

If an afterlife were true and if it were true that his family- or at least his parents, Ford, and Mabel were there- then what could be the point of staying on the Earth? Above it? He was done with merely floating about the Heavens- he was ready to join her.

But how were he to do that? He could not just fling himself off the side of the airship- he would be stopped by the Devil himself.

He supposed he could sneak a dagger and slice his throat to ribbons, but how were he to sneak a dagger?

As for a revolver or perhaps a pistol… well, that would leave the deck delightfully messy. Cipher would have to have someone swab his brain matter and assorted juices.

Just imagining it was a lark.

Dipper sniggered under his breath and continued the tapping of his pudgy fingers on the bars of the cage, a dull ringing sound echoing throughout the musty air.

Perhaps he could simply keep flinging himself off the side of the ship- over and over and over again till Cipher finally got to irritated at him and would slice him down themself with that flamboyant gold and ivory sword.

Or maybe crawl out over the steam pipes and have the broiling metal cook him to a crisp. Make Cipher have someone peel his melted skin off the pipes.

Dipper's laughter grew before falling quiet.

Cipher.

Bill.

Captain.

Captain Bill Cipher. The Golden Devil. Scourge of the Sun. Destroyer of the Night. The Killer of One Thousand Souls. Them and their merry band of Golden Angels.

Dipper, like everyone who took charge of the zephyr and called her their home, had heard of the myths. The stories. Tales of a creature who was positively repulsive, who bathed in the blood of innocents and whose blade was just as biting as their bullet. Who swooped through the skies like a phoenix- untouchable, dangerous, bringing an inferno that burned everything in their wake away.

Whispers between the realms differed like night and day. Some said the monster was merely a person who still had not put away their bedtime stories.

Others proclaimed they truly were a beast through and through- a devil disguised as an angel who had no moral compass and wandered in any direction they desired and, if you just so happened to be in their warpath… may the Heavens have mercy on your soul.

Dipper wasn't so sure what to believe himself- not even after meeting the creature and their horrid band of monsters. He was not human however. That much can be certain.

Dipper continued to tap on the bars of his cell, his eyes growing misty.

" _There are many horrible monsters out there, Dipper. Many, many beasts and not many are honest of the hell they keep beneath their skin. Do you understand what I am saying, boy?"_

" _I- I think so…."_

" _That's not good enough. You have to_ know  _so. Stay away from those beasts and creatures. Stay away from those who glitter and gleam and in the same breath, draw the blood of innocents. Promise me, Dipper. Promise me you will stay away from those beasts."_

" _I promise, Great Uncle Ford. I promise."_

Dipper sighed, tear stains still glimmering on his cheeks. He could not keep his promise.

And perhaps if he had been in the right place at the right time, he could have done something.

Perhaps, if he had been smarter, he could have somehow joined Mabel on her descent to where they had once came.

Perhaps those Earth-Lovers were right. Perhaps humans were not meant for the air.

Dipper snorted rudely. Or perhaps they were a bunch of pansies. Just like him at the moment. Just as his Great Uncle Stan had said.

" _If you don't stand up for yourself, who will? You think mommy and daddy is always gonna swoop in and tell you it's gonna be alright? Think again! You gotta think for yourself, act for yourself! Don't let anyone tread all over you, you got that?"_

Dipper leaned his head forwards against the bars of his cell, another shiver wracking his body. The bars of metal were more like spikes of ice.

Ford had been right. Stan had been right.

Look at him now. Sniveling in some wretched cell. Who cared if he were a prisoner to the most infamous band of pirates of this century? What would sitting and crying accomplish?

Besides feeling good, that is.

But beyond that? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever.

Dipper sighed at his circular thoughts, fingers drumming slower at the bars as he finally dropped his hand. Using the wall as purchase to guide him back down to the musty floor. He sunk into the chill that was not yet his grave, bones groaning in protest he was content to ignore.

He laid down fully, pressing his hands together as a makeshift pillow and rolling onto his side, staring out at the dark corridor. He swore he saw movements from a rat in the other cell, but he could not be certain.

Perhaps if he just let himself fall still, the cold would seep into his marrow and clot his blood and drain him of life and warmth. Perhaps he would be forgotten and he would wither away into nothing.

Dipper frowned into the wooden boards. What a sad, pathetic way to die. Festering away in a cell owned by a band of pirates.…

Dipper shook his head. How sad indeed. He couldn't say he's given much thought on how he would die, too busy with living each day one at a time. The subject had prickled his mind in the darkest of nights- when not even the moon shined and he was fresh from a heart aching argument that had cause waterworks to fall and his gut to knot. In those tense moments, when his emotions were raw and tender, the thought of death touched him, a slimy skull baring a grin staring down at him from his very nightmares, teasing thoughts of falling forever, of a sword slicing through him clean through, of bullets crunching his bones, of monsters chewing his flesh into sinewy chunks.

Not like this. Never like this. He was going to die tragically, traumatically, and with prowess and grace- after an adventure gone wrong, protecting those he cared most about, a self-sacrifice that was to be sung generations from now, mugs raised in his honor as his name reverberated across halls of grandeur.

 _At the very least I will die tragically and traumatically._ Dipper through bitterly, no comfort warming his chest at his own words.

Dipper let his eyes fall shut, his lids giving him no reprieve and changing nothing at all. His ruined skin twinged with pain and dried blood clung to his skin unpleasantly.

Dipper's sleep was restless.

~~0~~0~~0~~

Captain Bill Cipher was proud to say that they had never wasted their time. Not even a single second. Everything they ever worked towards was for a purpose.

Even if they themself did not have a single idea what that purpose was.

Currently, their time was spent pondering over a certain little birdie locked up in the cage down under. A caricature grin was stretching their face and they lazed back in their grandiose white bed, the frame edged in black, the thick sheets only a little stained with flecks of black and red blood. They idly spun the mirror in their fake eye around, listening intently to the glass scraping against metal.

They could not say why they had exactly decided to dart down under the wreckage of the pathetic trading ship and plunked the boy from the sky- like some ripe and juicy berry ready to burst with flavor.

However, that did not mean that they couldn't  _decipher_  their own motives in the future.

The captain chuckled to themself and sat up, crossing their legs underneath them and stretching their wings out. Their honeyed feathers caught the blue embers of the fire and shimmered in the near darkness. They folded their wings back up neatly and with a soft sigh, unclipped their corset, sliding it off their body. They ran their five spindly fingers up their own ribs, starting from the top to feel every curve and dent, tracing the scarred runes that patterned the skin stretched over the long, bent bones. Reaching the bottom, they giggled as they slipped a pad of their finger directly under the bone, pushing against their skin with a hardened claw, not quite drawing blood.

Removing their hand, they proceeded to swing their legs off their bed, picking their corset up and clipping it back together, placing it on the crimson loveseat, kicking the legs of the couch, right where it was bolted to the ground.

Without warning, the captain twirled around on the balls of their feet and launched themself into bed, bouncing a little as they nearly hit their head on the copper drapes. Falling onto their mattress in a mess of feathers, flailing limbs, and hair, they kicked their shoes off and shimmied out of their fishnets, only caring enough to pick said fishnets up, balling the tawny cloth in their fist and tossing it across the room so it hit the back of their loveseat.

"Don't bounce, don't bounce, don't bounce…" the captain chanted.

The fishnets fell onto the loveseat and stayed where they landed.

The captain cheered for themself, thrusting their hands into the air with a loud caterwaul. Laughing loudly to themselves as they felt pain spark from their wounded hand, they lowered their hands and stared hard at where they once had two fingers. Only stumps were left, now wrapped tightly in a bright white gauze.

They tried to wiggle the stumps. Agony tore through their nerves and set their brain alight with pain.

The stumps did not move.

The captain sniggered to themself again.

"Seems my new birdie has quite the bite," they murmured, "Maybe give him a little something else to gnaw on for a little bit…" they trailed off with a wicked grin.

The captain sat back up, long hair more of a tangled mess than anything else. Feathers flung into the air and twirled back down in a gentle descent. They stared at the feathers without seeing them, lost in the seas of their mind.

They hadn't ever really had a pet. Not even a little squeaky mouse.

And now they got a wild beast locked below, snorting and bellowing their irritating melodrama and sorrow.

Their birdie was quiet now however- caught in the reins of the night, most likely in deep slumber brought by the whims of the changing moon outside. Surely however, as soon as the sun rose and light trickled across the atmosphere, his cries would pierce the air and bring life to a new wave of irritation.

The captain fell back into their bed, snapping their fingers once, causing the crackling crealean light to die down into a gentle, somber smoulder. They turned over onto their side, a golden sea spilling behind them as they smashed their face into their pillow until sparking stars overtook the tight blackness of their closed eyes.

Tomorrow would be a new day. A day of sunlight and work and perhaps finding another trade ship to plunder. The captain grinned into their pillow.

Perhaps tomorrow they would give their birdie a little visit. Perhaps they could find use for him yet.

Indeed, tomorrow was a blank slate of clear skies, not a single cloud in sight.

If there was one thing Captain Bill Cipher had to say to themself, it was that they never wasted time. Not a single moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied and finished and edited this chapter early so here you go!
> 
> Again, if you see any mistakes, feel free to point them out to me so I can fix them!
> 
> I got a few changes I want to note about this story. For one, I am not doing any formal planning or outlining of chapters, which is very unusual for me as I always plan stories very very thoroughly.
> 
> The second change is a little different. Though I do have a plot thought up- more or less- I need more stuff for this fic to come into fruition.
> 
> SO I am mixing prompts into this mess! Basically, what this means is you guys can more or less leave a prompt in the comments and I have to fit it into this fic somehow. An example is if you gave me the prompt "Dipper tap dancing" I have to fit Dipper tap dancing in some way in this hot mess. Another option is a sentence prompt in which you give me a piece of dialogue I have to use somehow. An example of this would be "How DARE you slap me with a fish!" and somewhere in this fic I have to include a character saying that.
> 
> Note however that prompts must stick and stay within the realms of reality of this fic- meaning to magical farting unicorns from space coming down to kill everyone can not happen. Likewise other prompts that I will not have is as follows: Characters coming back to life (in any way), characters dying, characters getting sick, and characters getting pregnant. Beyond that however toss me your ideas! Any ideas at all!
> 
> ALSO note all the tag changes? They are very important and I will be editing the tags a lot. If you see something squicky get put in it, then I suggest not reading any more of this fic. Also, as you can tell, Anachronism is tagged. Some of you probably don't know what that is. Anachronism is "an act of attributing a custom, event, or object to a period to which it does not belong."
> 
> This fic is not really set in a time period anyways, but I still want you guys to take note of that if you read something that doesn't seem to fit. This fic is gonna have a lot of Anachronism in it so if it's not your cup of tea then I suggest backing out now.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Συνεδριάσεις

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since KYHMiT is pretty much completed, here's another update!
> 
> I didn't really edit this as I didn't feel like it. I'll edit it at a later date/before the next chapter is posted. For now, again, if you see any mistakes tell me so I can fix them!
> 
> EDIT: Went back and edited this so it should be good now. Still if you find anything let me know!

Dipper was awoken by the  _click clack_ of even, methodical steps coming toward his cell.

He blinked slowly, soft golden light filtering between the cracks and holes in the dark wood, dappling the boards beneath his feet with delicate honey waves. He sat up, every bone in his body creaking and groaning at the rude awakening. Dipper pressed his hands flat against the floor, trepidation creeping into his heart. A new sheen of sweat broke across his pasty forehead and ignoring his aching limbs, shoved himself as far back into the wall as he could. His legs curled into his chest, his knees pressing hard against his chest, as if to keep his palpitating heart within its cavity.

A reinforced silver boot detailed in red stepped into Dipper's sights.

Dipper visibly relaxed.

His visitor was not the Golden Devil.

Pyronica did not seem to be particularly happy to be paying Dipper a visit. Her freshly painted lips were quirked into a deep, irritated frown and her brow was furrowed low over her wide eye. As soon as she eyed the prisoner crouched in his cage, her nose wrinkled up.

Dipper bit back the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he smelled bad. Even back on his own ship, his baths were rare and far between.

Pyronica paused before the door, both feet planted flat on the floor. Her lips curled- whether in distaste or hate, Dipper couldn't tell.

"I'm going to open the door. You are to stay where you are- no running! Captain Cipher made it clear that if you are to run, I am to, verbatim, "chop every other little piggy toe off and saw the stumps down." Pyronica's nose scrunched up at the thought. "I would prefer not touching your gross feet and I imagine you would prefer to keep your toes, yes?"

Pyronica waited for Dipper to give her some form of acknowledgment.

Dipper nodded.

"Good. If that's understood, stay where you are," Pyronica ordered. Brandishing a key from a pocket on her side, she unlocked the lock with a small twist of her wrist. She swung the door open with a push of her fingers. Her shoulders were wound up tight, her limbs already twitching in anticipation to shove Dipper back if he tried to abscond again.

However, Dipper stayed where he stood, eyes narrowed and lips twisted in a perpetual frown.

Pyronica stepped back from the cell, signaling for Dipper to come out. There was something not quite right with this boy, she could feel it like she could feel the thinness of the zephyr so far up.

Despite the odd warnings churning inside her, Pyronica stepped forwards grabbed Dipper's wrist without hesitation when he didn't move fast enough, her grip like iron as she pulled him alongside her. She marched down the corridor without giving DIpper another glance, eyes straight and steady. Dipper stumbled alongside her, surprised at her quick pace, but quickly righted himself. Though he desperately wanted to yank his arm away from Pyronica, Dipper forced himself not to. He didn't want every other toe he had to be chopped off, after all.

The trip upwards was short and much too sweet to lead to anything that could resemble good. Tromping up the stairs to the deck, anticipation bubbled in Dipper's stomach while dread oozed from his torn heart.

What was to happen to him  _now?_ That Golden Devil had said they would do awful things to him if he didn't comply, or something akin to that at least. What could be worse than his situation now? Worse than the cold, grinning face of Death himself?

Dipper didn't know and he truly hoped his darkened thoughts were blinding him to the truth.

Pyronica's grip tightened as they reached the door to the main deck. Shooting her captive a sharp warning glare, the woman threw the door open and strode out under the torrid sun.

Dipper squinted under the assault from the light, using his hand to try and shade his face. Though gold still seeped through the cracks of his fingers, Dipper was no longer completely blind.

He peered around in thinly-veiled interest as Pyronica dragged him down towards the bridge. The crew members fluttered around, doing whatever jobs their captain had given them for the time being. Some swept the deck back and forth in an almost methodical slumber while others were more apt at screwing off, pouring tankards of beer down their gullets and laughing as they rolled dice.

Dipper winced when hard pairs of eyes rose to meet his own gaze. Biting the inside of his cheek harshly, Dipper hung his head and broke off his stare before he saw something too startling. He swallowed down the whimpers of pain that bubbled in his chest as he fell hard on his hurt foot when struggling to keep up with Pyronica.

Dipper eyed the golden stairs curling up into the bridge with apprehension and disdain. His leg was screaming for a needed rest and quite frankly, the thought of staring up into the face of that Golden Devil sent all sorts of chills through his veins.

Pyronica did not care for his troubles as he voiced them and merely started to drag him up the creaking stairs. Grunts and squeaks of pain were squeezed from his chest as he stumbled after her, wincing when his toes slipped and stabbed into the next step up. He clawed at the thin metal banister, the tarnish feeling positively repulsive underneath the dirty pads of his fingers.

Dipper nearly sobbed in relief when he and Pyronica made it to the top. Dipper leaned against Pyronica heavily, his attention stolen by the agony tickling his bones and flesh.

Pyronica shoved Dipper off her, nearly sending him to the floor.

"Get off me," she snapped, nose scrunching up. "The sooner I get you to Captain Cipher, the sooner I get rid of you and the better off  _I'll_ be."

Dipper scowled up at her, but said nothing.

"Captain Cipher!" Pyronica called out towards the glittering figure perched above them at the wheel. Their back was facing the both of them and from where he was, Dipper was not sure what exactly they were doing.

"Ah, Pyronica! Ya finally made it, didn't ya?" they called out. They didn't turn around.

"Yes sir!" Pyronica said, nodding her head. If she was perturbed by Cipher's odd behaviour, she didn't show it.

Dipper yelped as he was flung over. Hissing in pain, he collapsed onto his knees. Wincing at the pain in his body, he awkwardly rolled over and sat on his bottom, peering up at the captain. Their wings gleamed in the bright light, each feather cradling a little mirrored world of greed, apathy, and a hunger for violence. In one fluid motion, the captain twirled around with more flamboyancy than Dipper had ever seen before. Their grin was just as it was yesterday- too gigantic to be true, too curved to be anything but awful, and each fang was something out of a horror story.

Dipper snapped his eyes up to the captain's- one gleaming gold, the other nothing but a contraption birthed from mutilation. Dipper forced himself not to shudder in disgust.

"And you brought our newest crew member! Lovely," the captain sang, skipping down to them. Their feet slammed into the floor before Dipper and he jerked back, scrambling back up and out of his stupor. "Get back to doing what yer doin', Pyronica."

Pyronica, with a twist of a dial on her harness, opened her wings and took a running jump into the currents battering around the ship.

Captain Cipher's grin never faltered as they strode closer to Dipper, each step slow and purposeful. Dipper found himself unable to move, pinned down by The Golden Devil's mere presence.

"Glad to see ya standin' up straight," the captain chortled.

Dipper blinked slowly, unsure how to respond to the creature grinning down at him. He found his voice more quickly than he expected, however, and decided to state his point before the captain could utter another nuisance.

"I am not going to work for you, so don't even try and order me 'round!"

The captain's cheery smile grew even wider, amazingly enough, and their brows drew together tightly. Nostrils flared and Dipper found himself staring into the gaze of a beast.

A true, horrifyingly, completely inhuman beast.

Before Dipper could try and back away, The Golden Devil darted a hand out, grabbing him by the collar of the rag that was his shirt, hauling him closer. Dipper whimpered, the rough movement jerking his wounded body, and his hands flew up to claw at the captain's lean forearm as they easily lifted him up into the air with a strength a person their size should not be capable of.

"Remember what I said yesterday to you, little birdie? I'm the captain of this ship and you get your orders from me. You  _will_ do exactly as I say, you  _will_ follow through my every order as I see fit, and you  _will not_  complain about it. As I told you yesterday, I could make your life 'ere so much worse. I could torture you within a millimeter of your life! Pop your eyes out of your sockets and force 'em up your ass if I wanted; chop off every tip of your finger and stuff 'em in your ears till you can't hear your own begging screams! And even when you are  _pleading_ and  _crying_ for death will I still not grant it to ya! You'll have to lay there, even more fingerless than I am with each of your orifices filled with a different cut body part while ya squirm in your own blood and agony!"

The captain's claws dug into the backs of Dipper's hands and he cried out again, tears pricking his eyes as he tried to arch away from them.

The captain snorted and set him back on the ground, not yet letting go of him. "You got that?"

Dipper blinked hard, glaring up at the captain. He was quivering in his own shoes. Gritting his teeth, Dipper gathered all the courage boiling away in the face of the heat of The Golden Devil's wrath, and spat at them.

The captain dropped Dipper's hands, raising a slow hand up to their cheek. "You  _spit_ on me," they said, completely perplexed.

Dipper backed away from the captain, his eyes narrowed. He rose his hands up warily, ready just in case the captain struck at him.

The captain glanced at their fingers, rubbing the saliva they had rubbed off their cheek between their fingers. Their eye slowly rose up to meet Dipper's. The golden iris was almost gone in the wake of the black sea of their blown pupil.

Then, they broke into laughter.

Dipper jerked at the sound of it, high-pitched and screeching, as it hit the Heavens and caused his own ears to ring. They doubled over, gripping their stomach at the wake of their own trembling body. Their shoulders quivered and their mouth stretched wide enough to allow their forked tongue to roll out, lolling across their chin. Their teeth gleamed and Dipper found himself frozen at the sight of of Captain Bill Cipher's twisted and unsightly face.

Dipper was not so sure how long had passed till the captain finally straightened up, the last dregs of their giggles evaporating into the air. Their eye was narrowed into a thin slit as they stared at Dipper.

Dipper's heart slammed in his chest and all he could hear was his own blood rushing through his ears.

"Well, that was unexpected!" the captain said.

Dipper curled his lip but didn't respond.

The captain strode forwards and grabbed Dipper by his wrist again, pulling him close.

"You're a fighter, ain't ya?"

Dipper glared up at them.

"Ya know, around me, fighters tend to either break down completely or… well, something even more unpleasant- oftentimes including a bullet or a blade goin' right through 'em! Though, concerning you, that would be all too easy, now wouldn't it?"

"So what are you saying?" Dipper bit out. "You're planning to… what?  _Break me?"_ Dipper scoffed. "Good fucking luck."

The captain laughed. "You may think you're broken- no family, no home, no  _nothing-"_

Dipper snarled and snapped his teeth.

"-But trust me, birdie. You're not." The Golden Devil's eyes darkened. "You are  _far_ from being broken and seeing what makes you  _crack_ will be absolutely  _beautiful."_

Dipper tightened his hands into fists and he yanked himself back. The captain allowed him to break his grip.

"Then I'm not gonna let you break me!" Tears bubbled in Dipper's eyes as he stood ramrod straight, crossing his arms and staring as hard as he could into The Golden Devil's repulsive face, all traces of previous fear he had swept away by his own tumultuous determination. "You want to break me. Fine. Fine! But I won't let you! I won't let  _you_ control me nor- nor will I allow my family's  _murderer_ get away with whatever they want! Mark my words, Captain Bill Cipher, you will  _die_ by my hands!"

Bill stared at the short, pudgy boy before them, snarling and spitting, the fire of a battle not yet started flaming in his eyes. Fists were clenched on either side of him.

"Kill me?" Bill said it as if they could hardly fathom the notion. "You- a trader boy with not a scrap of anything to your name, who owns not even the clothes on his back, is going to kill  _me?_ A walking legend?"

Dipper's stare never broke.

Bill exploded into cracking guffaws again. "Oh, I've heard some sorry threats in my days, but nothing as pathetic as what you just spewed to me right here, right now! You, my little birdie, have one hell of a funny bone!" Bill slapped their own thighs in amusement and straightened back up, chest still heaving and shoulders still rising and falling, wings flexing behind them.

Dipper scowled deeply, but kept the words he was ready to spit out to himself.

"In fact-" Bill drawled, "I think you should share your misgivings with the rest of my crew!"

Dipper cried out in pain when Bill darted forwards, grabbing his wrists for the third time, and dragged him over to the balcony at the end of the bridge. Bill threw him forward, and Dipper's breath got knocked from him as he slammed hard into the burnished wooden banister. Dipper used it to keep himself standing up, his knees knocking together hard at how shook. Dipper's back tensed as Bill leaned forward, pressing their thin chest against his smaller, yet thicker back while their hands gripped the banister either side of him, trapping him completely.

With nowhere to go, Dipper was forced to look down at the rest of the crew meandering about, rolling through their duties with a sort of mindlessness Dipper found himself missing in himself.

If only things could be how they were before.

If only Captain Bill Cipher hadn't decided to strike them. If only they hadn't decided to tear everything away from him.

"Hey, all ya slugs!" Bill called out, leaning more on Dipper and pressing his chest hard against the curve of the wood.

The crew looked up at their captain dutifully, their eyes shining with slight curiosity at the trapped boy. Lips twitched in both confusion and amusement and a few called back playfully.

"Shut up, ya degenerates! I got some more news," Bill said. "See this noodle of a boy?"

Dipper tried to recoil when all the crew's eyes fell on him, all staring with distaste, perplexity, or just plain malice.

"Our newest little crewmember here shared a little tidbit with me and I thought you bilge rats would like ta hear it!"

"I totally forgot about the kid," one said out loud to no one in particular.

"I still can't believe captain actually let some- some-  _knave_ join them," another spoke.

"Hey, listen to me!" Bill stomped their foot twice, capturing the other pirate's attention. Grinning when all eyes fell on them, Bill leaned over Dipper's shoulder, pressing their cheek against Dipper's hard. "This little lad right here says, no,  _swears_ that he's gonna be the one ta kill me!"

At first, no one said anything at all. Even the wind constantly howling all around seemed to quiet down at the revelation. Dipper's face grew hot under the stares directed at him and Bill's face pressing into his felt like a hot sword digging into his cheek.

Then, laughter erupted. Cruel, sharp laughter that pierced through Dipper's thin skin and right into his already sick heart. The zephyr around him seemed to cackle itself as it swirled around him. Bill leaned on him fully. Their hands came up to grip Dipper's jaw, forcing him to stare down at the gaping mouths below spilling out great barrels of laughter. Eyes squinted in mirth and shattered sentences dripped from chapped and cracked lips.

"He- he really…?"

"...Can't believe! I've heard some crazy things in my days but-!"

"Stupidity at its finest I tell ya!"

Dipper jerked away from Bill as he felt the tears which had bubbled up before finally spill down his cheeks in twin thin streams. They traced a lazy curve, dripping off his chin out of tandem with his racing heart.

Dipper squirmed between Bill's arms as he struggled to get away from his own burning face and tears. The pirate's guffaws and ridicule rang in his ears and a tornado of humiliation tore a path directly through him. Bill's lips pressed against his ear- moist and hot.

"See? See how utterly delusional you are? You're not gonna kill me, lad. You work fer me now and you aren't gonna go anywhere."

"Let go of me!" Dipper gasped, kicking out as Bill drew away from the banister.

"I don't think so, lad," Bill chortled. "I need to think of a good place for a little birdie like you…."

"How about over the side of the boat?"

Bill snickered. "Oh, you wish! No, no I have a better idea where to put you."

Dipper squeaked as Bill threw him over their shoulder like he were nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Head held high, more dignity on their face than they should have, Bill strode down the stairs and to their quarters under the bridge.

Bill swung the door open with a flamboyant twist of their wrist and it closed behind both them and Dipper with the most satisfying of  _clicks._

A desk sat heavy in the middle of the room, which seemed to be a normal map room by any case to Dipper's eyes. Different daggers stuck out straight from the unfurled map. Stacked against the walls were chests stacked upon chests of what Dipper figured to be plundered treasures from poor souls that happened to have something Captain Bill Cipher desired. More maps hung heavy on the walls, worn by time and battering winds. Dipper squirmed a little, unable to get away from Bill. Sweat beaded his forehead and Dipper gulped thickly.

Everything was so crowded together and so  _messy._ There was barely a lick of wall staring back at him. Junk was strewn across the flooring- parchment, quills, and empty ink bottles lie next to golden coins, jewels, and bits of broken jewelry that had been trampled into the ground.

Bill didn't dwell long in the map room, marching around the table with a sharp and staccato  _click click click_ of their boots. Dipper winced when he saw deformed pearls and already cracked gems shatter beneath their heels.

Stuffed in the center of the back wall sat a golden door and it was easily the most intricate and gluttonous door of greed Dipper had ever seen in his entire life.

An intricate pattern of eyes surrounded the circumference, each enclosed within a triangle whose tips touched the triangles either side of them. At the top shone a sun pressed into the door, streams of fiery rays swirling from the tumultuous center of the ball of fire. The rays scorched the curved land far below where stacks upon stacks of bodies lie in a sea of bloodless gore. Each and every soulless face was turned towards Dipper, small ruby eyes staring back into his own with a malice he knew he could never comprehend. Broken jaws hung open in silent screams for both life and death and above it all and under the sun was a strange circular halo.

Dipper squinted, but the small indentation inside the halo was impossible to make out.

Bill reached out and taking a second to circle their finger around the halo almost lovingly, proceeded to swing the door open and strided inside.

Dipper stared into the belly of the home of the beast, his eyes wide as he took in the lascivious cerulean flames flickering in torches on the walls, which reflected perfectly off the glittering golden columns carved into the corners of the bedroom. A four-poster bed was pushed against the back wall, perfectly centered. The sheets and pillows were a stark, almost unnatural white. Against the right wall was a loveseat bolted to the ground. Near the entrance to the door to the right sat a lonely desk, crammed with books, quills, inkwells, and other junk. Bookshelves lined the rest of the room, metal bars strapping in all sorts of books, skulls, and other treasures to keep them from flying off by the turbulence that shook the ship. Worn red tapestries detailing the Eye of Providence hung from the ceiling.

Bill trailed across the intricate black and gold rug spilled across the boards underfoot.

Dipper blinked and turned his head at the sound of metal lightly knocking against wood. His eyes widened and swirled in fear at the sight of what appeared to be some sort of bird cage hanging from the ceiling.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Dipper cried out as Bill opened the cage.

"I told ya, little birdie. I need to find a better place to put ya. The brig gets cold at night and I don't want ya dying on me!"

Dipper squirmed in Bill's grip, but was no match for them as he was stuffed into the hanging cage. Dipper cried out in terror as the entire cage shook, gripping the bars tightly. His knuckles shone a shiny white.

With a throaty cackle, Bill slammed the cage door. Pulling a ring of keys from their belt, they locked it up tight before Dipper could try and push the door open.

Dipper pressed his knees together tightly, whimpers bubbling in his throat as he stared at Bill. "You can't keep me in here! This is- this is…. I'm not an animal!"

"Ya act like an animal, I treat ya like an animal," Bill replied smoothly. The leaned against one of their bookcases and swung the ring of keys they had around on their finger. A large smirk cracked their face. "Maybe next time, you'll think differently before spittin' on me."

Dipper growled and bared his teeth, but said nothing in response.

"Now, if you be- oops!" Bill's keys flew off their finger and across the room, hitting the wall and falling. Bill chuckled to themselves and strode over to pick the ring up, returning it to its proper place on their belt. They strode back over to Dipper, standing on their tiptoes as they stared down at the boy in his cage.

Dipper squirmed, unable to do much else beyond stare up at Bill through his fringe of hair.

"Now what was I saying? Oh yeah! You be good and all nice, I may just let you out of your cage! Got that, little birdie?"

Dipper glared.

Bill's brows set low over their eyes and they growled. Balling up a fist, they slammed the side of their hand against the side of the cage. Dipper screamed in fright as he spun all around. The cage slammed against the back wall and Dipper whimpered in pain as metal banged and cut into him.

Bill grabbed the chain holding the cage, causing it to still suddenly. Dipper blinked hard, trying to get the room and Bill to stop spinning all around him.

"I said, do you got me?" Bill snarled.

Dipper nodded quickly. Bill shook the chains again.

"I got you I got you! Please…."

Bill cackled again, throwing their head back and holding their stomach. "A response was all I wanted." Bill stepped away from Dipper, turning away.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going!"

Bill turned to look at Dipper, pausing mid step. "Doing my job as captain of this vessel. As much as I would love to play with you, I got a job to do."

"But-"

"See you tonight!"

"But- but you can't-!" Dipper gasped. He whimpered as the cage tilted as he squirmed in it again. He gripped the bars tightly, trying to find some semblance of balance. His stomach churned.

"See you tonight, my little birdie! Goodbye!" With one last wave and wink, the captain spun and slammed the door close to their cabin. As soon as the resounding noise from the slam faded out, the flickering lights went out, plunging the entire room and Dipper into darkness.

Dipper whimpered again and curled up into the tightest ball he could, pressing his face against his knees.

His legs were already falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did a poll on my tumblr (URL lanxborealiss if you wanna follow!) for how long these chapters should be. Most people said short chapters that are updated more frequently so that's what ya'll are gonna get. Ofc some argue 4,000 words is not short, but I digress. Chapters will be shorter than 5,000 words however, which is my normal count for stories like this.
> 
> Suggestions for this story are still open so leave as many as you like and I'll see what I can fit in!
> 
> Anyways, since I do have a general idea of how the next chapter will be and I do have the time, expect an update somewhat soon!
> 
> Comments are always welcome and make my day so please leave one if you are liking this story so far.  
> Thank you for reading!


	4. Εγγύτητα

A scream nearly burst from Dipper's lungs when the door swung open and  _slammed_ against the wall with a shuddering  _crack._

Dipper whimpered, leaning away from the door as much as he could while trapped in his little cage. He braced his hands against the bars of the cage, trying to keep it from tipping from side to side and slamming him all around. He knew he already had bruises blooming to life across his pale skin. He did not want more to weasel their way into a painful existence.

Bill- the bastard- laughed loudly at the sight of the boy scrambling in his cage. Kicking the door closed with their heel, Bill stumbled further inside their quarters, gripping the edge of their desk with a white-knuckled grip. Their dark cheeks were flushed a bright pink from liquid cheer and their eye seemed to roll in its socket haphazardly, sliding onto Dipper before already being lost in a drunken haze.

Dipper swallowed his whimper of pain down. His wounds were throbbing and his muscles tense and sore.

Bill sucked in a breath before attempting to walk again. A wide, unsettling grin was stretched across their skull and they practically fell twice as they fell against their bed, hitting the mattress with their hip. They snickered before flopping stomach-first onto the bed. They smashed their face into their mattress, all the while snickering to themself, then rolled to the edge, propping their face in their hand. Their golden curls were a tempest around their pointed face as they peered up at Dipper, fangs glinting in the flickering light of the blue torches.

"Heeeeey, birdie," they drawled.

Dipper gulped, eyes widening. He tried to push away as far as he could, but froze when the cage started to tip backward. He gripped the bars in front of him tightly, trying to tip his bodyweight forward so he wouldn't harm himself further.

Bill rolled off the bed, nearly falling as they stood up. They leaned a heavy hand against the wall and carefully stepped forward.

Dipper found himself staring deep into Bill's eye- ringed in red from blasphemy and grog, yet not as mindless as he had been expecting. The sea of black overtook the murky gold easily and yet, they still were focused on him.

Only him.

Dipper shivered, cold settling into his marrow.

"Birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie!" Bill sang and they reached out to grip the chain of the cage. Dipper squawked loudly, knees banging against the bars painfully as he tried to stabilize himself. Dipper's copper eyes peered through his messy fringe, staring up at the rosy, pink, and flushed face of Bill.

"That's not my name," Dipper grumbled, coughing. He could feel the bile rolling around at the bottom of his curled lungs.

"You say that like I care," Bill drawled yet again, leaning their weight on the cage. Dipper squawked again as the entire cage tilted. His knees pressed further into the cage, cutting hard into his flesh. "Now, are you ready?"

Dipper blinked owlishly. "Ready? For what?"

Bill grinned and it was just as unsettling and as fanged as before, filled with dark promises. Still leaning heavily on Dipper's cage, they reached to his belt and pulled out their ring of keys.

Dipper's eyes widened and a shimmer of hope gleamed in both as Bill proceeded to unlock the cage.

"Ack!" Dipper cried out as he rolled out of his cage. Reaching out a single arm, Bill caught him around his thighs, balancing him in a single arm. Dipper gasped, wrapping his legs around their waist tightly. Bill's wings twitched behind them, glittering silently. They hefted Dipper up easily, balancing him on their hip.

Dipper stared down into Bill's eye, his heart pounding in his chest. Bill couldn't be human. It just wasn't possible.

"Falling into my arms already? You're a quick one," Bill snickered.

Dipper glared hard at the captain, scrunching up his nose. "Please. Automatic response," he spat.

Bill chuckled again, baring their teeth fully. "Whatever helps ya sleep at night."

Dipper tried to pull out of the captain's arms, but found himself unable to peel away from their chest. Out of one cage and into another.

Bill hefted him up, carrying him more like a child than anything else, and peered into his eyes with their singular golden one. Dipper glanced away quickly, unable to meet their gaze.

"What do you want?" Dipper snapped. Now that he was in the captain's arms, all he wanted was to go back into his cage.

 _His_ cage. Dipper scowled at himself.

"A lot of things, most  _you_ can't provide me with," Bill said. They turned, padding over to his desk. Dipper grunted, his arms trapped between Bill's and their torso. He felt as if he were about to fall.

For Dipper, the only time he wanted to fall is if there were nothing but open skies beneath him.

Bill sat heavily at their desk, groaning and leaning back. They dropped Dipper onto their lap, keeping a single arm wrapped tight around his torso, preventing him from moving. Dipper gulped.

"If ya hit me, I'll make you regret it," Bill said.

Dipper stared up at Bill, his eyes boring into their forehead, his breath caught in his chest. The tensity between the two had his gut rolling and his mind chugging along at breakneck paces. His fists, tight against Bill's chest, dropped to Dipper's lap.

A wry smirk grew on Bill's face.

Dipper jerked his fist up, catching Bill hard in the chin.

Dipper kicked out with his legs in a bid to get away, only to be caught by the captain's tightened arm. A whine built up in the back of Dipper's throat at the hard pressure put on his hips. Bill, whose head had jerked backwards at the assault, turned to peer back down at the squirming boy in his lap. Their other arm moved to wrap around Dipper tightly and he found himself crushed against Bill's chest again.

Dipper's heart was lodged in his throat and his very marrow felt frozen. His hands twitched. Of course this would have happened-  _of course._ Dipper winced, pressing his cheek back into his shoulder, bracing for impact. Gooseflesh prickled his flesh and Dipper felt as if his skin were going to shiver right off his bones.

"You're so feisty, I love it!" Bill cawed.

Dipper's head jerked up in astonishment at Bill's cry. His heart dropped back into the cavity of his chest like a stone.

Bill continued to grin down at Dipper. "Now, little birdie. I bet you don't want to spend your night in that cage over there, right?"

Dipper glanced over Bill's sharp shoulder at the cage, peering through their golden feathers, and shook his head.

Bill's grin somehow, impossibly, widened. "That's what I thought," they purred. "So, how 'bout we make ourselves a little deal, yes?"

"A… deal?" Dipper echoed after a few tense heartbeats of silence. He slowly peeked back up at Bill's angular face, finding nothing but a slimy mask of amusement staring back at him.

"Something like that," Bill sang. They chortled, as if laughing at their own joke. "You do what I say, well, I'll find a  _much_ better place for you to sleep, little birdie. As I said, you be nice and good, you'll be treated pretty well around here! You act like a little shit, well…" Bill glanced away. "You can pray to your dead family you'll die one day."

Dipper tensed up, staring up at Bill with huge, scandalized eyes. Crimson bled into Dipper's vision.

"Be good, my little birdie. Be good," they cooed softly. "Oh, be good."

Dipper sucked in a harsh breath, his shoulders trembling. He released the breath he was holding and focused on the cage behind Bill.

"Stop calling me birdie," Dipper stated tightly.

Bill's lips twitched and whether it was in amusement or disappointment Dipper could not tell. "I'll call you whatever I want to," they replied. Their voice was nearly a growl. "Anyways, do you want to hear the deal or not?"

Dipper let his eyes slide back over to Bill's face. He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Yes," he said. "I do."

"Oh, joy!" Bill cackled. Still keeping an arm wrapped tightly around Dipper, Bill cast their other hand out across his desk. He pulled out a small box. With a single hand, they flicked the lock open.

Dipper gulped thickly, mentally preparing himself for the worse. Turning around, he peered into the box.

Thick, crimson velvet cushions lined the box. Perched precariously inside was a single needle and a spool of black thread.

"...What?" Dipper asked. He squeaked when he felt Bill pick him up, spinned him around forcefully, and then pulled him back into their lap. Dipper squirmed, then gasped, all too aware of how hard Bill was as he were pressed into their chest. Bill wrapped their arm back around Dipper, pinning his arms down. With his other hand, they pulled out another box, placing it next to the first. It shimmered a soft silver and runes unknown to Dipper were etched into the lid and its sides.

Bill proceeded to open that box as well.

Dipper gagged at the sight that awaited him inside the box, unable to flinch back any farther when caught in Bill's arms. His stomach curdled and bitter sickness rose to the back of his throat, threatening to dribble over his chin. Dipper scrunched his nose up and swallowed his bile, barely able to breathe out of his mouth.

Inside the box were two bloated fingers stained in purple.

Dipper could feel Bill's grin over his shoulder.

"See what you did? Proud of yourself, aren't you? Don't worry, I'd be proud too. Especially if it was against  _me,"_ Bill purred.

Dipper shivered. "What-"

Dipper nearly jumped when Bill slammed their hurt hand in front of them, the fingers they still had left splayed out. The bandages were stained in dry, black blood and were practically falling off. Dipper gagged again at the putrid stink and the bones and ligaments poking out of their torn flesh.

"You're gonna fix this fer me so I don't have ta!"

"That- that is not how that works!" Dipper cried out. With no other option, he buried his nose in Bill's bicep, trying his best to pull away as much as he could from the disgusting sight laid bare before him.

"Ha! That's what  _you_ think, but what do  _you_ know? Now do what yer captain tells you and start sewing," Bill cawed, wiggling their stumps at Dipper. Dipper squeaked in alarm, but couldn't move any farther away.

"You are  _not_ my captain," Dipper said while holding his breath.

"Hm, yeah yeah. I thought you would say that. Listen, I could threaten you and make you scream and do the same bullshit you've been pushing me to do OR you could just do as I say and make life easier for the both of us! It's all up to you, kid."

Dipper sneered at Bill and moved to bite their arm.

Dipper whimpered in pain as Bill's hand curled around his side, pinching and squeezing him hard. Dipper squirmed, but couldn't break Bill's iron grip on him. "Stop, stop, stop!" Dipper wheezed, kicking his legs out to no avail.

"Do what I say and I will! Ya got that?"

Dipper nodded rapidly. Bill let go.

Dipper tentatively scooted forwards on Bill's lap, sighing in relief when they allowed him use of his arms again. Bill still kept their good arm around Dipper, however, ready to pin him back down at any moment's notice. Their wounded hand did not move from where it laid waiting for Dipper.

Dipper gulped thickly and with a shaking hand, took the spool of thread from the cushioned box along with the needles. Unrolling the thread, Dipper fed it through the eye of the thinner needle and tied the knot tight and snug, giving it a few tugs to make sure the thread wouldn't fall loose.

Dipper froze, nearly dropping the needle twice as he stared down at the two fingers sitting quite bored in their box. He gulped thickly, unable to get a wad of saliva down past his heart currently lodged in his throat.

"Do I- do I  _have_ to touch-" Dipper pointed at Bill's missing fingers.

Bill's feral grin shined down upon him. "Of course."

Dipper gulped.  _He was not doing this he was not_ really  _asked to pick up a purple, bloodless finger to sew back onto some crazy pirate who lost it these things just did not happen to someone this could not be happening this could not be happening he wasn't actually…._

Dipper reached into the box and using his nails, pinched up Bill's lost middle finger.

Dipper nearly dropped it. The cold and hard flesh was more like some limp, dead fish than a finger. Revulsion oozed out of Dipper's every pore. Holding his breath, barely breathing from his mouth, Dipper placed the finger where it was supposed to be in front of the stump.

Behind and underneath Dipper, Bill held completely still. Dipper couldn't even feel their chest rising and falling with breath.

Dipper could still see, still feel, Bill's grin- plastered there in front of his mind's eye, watching and waiting for him.

Waiting to swallow him whole.

Dipper pressed the purple finger flush against Bill's stump. No reaction.

Taking the needle, Dipper first pressed the tip against the hanging skin on the offed finger. Pressing and dragging the thread through, Dipper proceeded to place the tip of the needle against Bill's dark, flushed, skin. He stared at the dried black blood still circling the wound, at the bones and ligaments he knew could not mesh together.

Tightening his hand into a fist and with too much gusto, Dipper plunged the needle into Bill's hand hard, connecting Bill to their finger with the first of many measly lines of thread.

If Bill felt any pain, any discomfort at all, they did not show it. Even their muscles were still as lax as they could be.

Dipper gritted his teeth, disappointment bubbling in his gut, and with a small snort he proceeded to sew Bill's finger back onto their hand.

Dipper's stabs got more and more violent as time passed. His stitch was as crooked as could be and more than once, he dug the needle in too hard into Bill's hand, hitting and grinding against bone. No apologies spilled from his lips and neither did they flicker in his eyes. He merely continued to do the work given to him, loathing brewing hot and ugly in his heart, which never left his throat.

Dipper tied off the first finger, his nose wrinkling at the sight of flecks of blood on the desk.

"Wow, this is a real bang up job! Now do the other!" Bill commanded.

Dipper winced but proceeded to sew Bill's other finger on, jabbing at their bone, sick pleasure gurgling in him at the sight of blood appearing but disappointment washing him away when Bill, yet again, had no reaction.

As soon as Dipper was done, his arms were pinned down again and Bill looked close at their hand. The fingers hung like dead weights from where they were connected on them.

"I hope you get an infection and die," Dipper spat lowly, looking away from the macabre sight.

Bill snorted at him. "Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I am quite pleased with you, little birdie! I think you deserve a little treat," Bill sung.

"The sweet release of death?"

Bill let out a guffaw. "Of course not! You are too funny! Nah, I was thinking that for tonight, I'll let ya sleep outside your cage! How does that sound?"

Dipper pursed his lips together and stared at Bill. "Really? You are actually  _refusing_ to torture me?"

"Don't expect the same in the future. Now are you gonna look my gift horse in the mouth or are ye gonna shut up and accept it?"

Dipper snapped his mouth closed and leveled another fiery glare at Bill. Bill snickered at the look and stood up, scooping Dipper up with them. Kicking off their boots and taking their belt off with a single hand, Bill proceeded to stride over to their bed.

They dumped Dipper on it. Dipper gasped as his back hit the soft mattress and he stared up at Bill with huge eyes. "W- what?"

"I said I'd give ye a gift and what's a better gift than sharing a bed with me?" Bill asked with a flamboyant wave of their hand. They shimmied out of their fishnets and threw them over onto the loveseat pushed up against the wall.

Dipper paled and quickly looked away when Bill proceeded to take their corset off as well, only leaving their skirt left.

Dipper scrambled back when Bill suddenly dropped onto the bed, crawling forwards with a grin. Dipper wasn't fast enough, however, and Bill's palms slammed into his shoulders, shoving him down and into their pillows.

"Trying to run away from me? And I even give you my bed to rest in! How cruel you are."

"I wasn't-! Get off me!" Dipper protested, trying to wriggle away. Bill was much stronger than him, however, and easily pinned him down.

"No," Bill stated simply before dropping on the boy completely.

Dipper flushed brightly, his heart slamming in his chest as he felt Bill's warm body press flush against his own. Bill laid their head on Dipper's chest.

"You need to calm down, little birdie," Bill said to Dipper. Their wings flexed into the air, catching the flickers lights around the room, before settling down, draping across the bed.

Dipper made a face, spitting when a feather hit him in the mouth.

"It's time to sleep," Bill continued. They already sounded drowsy.

"I can't sleep like this! You're so heavy," Dipper complained. He tried to wiggle out from Bill again, but a guttural, warning growl made him fall still.

"You can either sleep here, or sleep in your cage. Do you really want me to change my mind?"

Dipper found himself looking away from Bill's look, laying back and staring up at the ceiling. He gulped, ignoring the way Bill's bare chest pressed against his stomach or how their lean arms had encircled his waist, pulling him closer.

"Night," Dipper bit out.

Though Dipper wasn't looking at Bill, he knew the bastard was wearing a grin.

"Goodnight, little birdie."

The torches went out with one last flicker and the room was plunged into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter than before buuut I already said that these chapters will be.  
> Anyways Bill is awful and disgusting and yes I am a fan of the "sharing the bed" trope.  
> Poor Dipper he really does not deserve any of this now does he?
> 
> Anyways, the wait for this was longer than I wanted but ah well. I hope you guys liked this chapter nevertheless.  
> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


	5. Αποφάσεις

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I haven't worked on this fic for a year. But it's back now! I mentioned I would probably bring this fic out of hiatus, and so I have! The story is still the same, but who knows maybe some of you guys have forgotten what I posted about it or wanna read it anyways.
> 
> The previous chapters, since they were written a year ago, might not match with the style of this chapter. I apologize to anyone who is bothered by this. I tried my best to mimic the previous chapters in terms of style but... it's been a year and my writing has grown a lot I like to think.
> 
> Also! I edited the previous chapters but you don't need to reread them unless you need a refresher (which a lot of you probably might need...)
> 
> Anyways! I have more info about this fic at the end of this chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter nonetheless.

Dipper awoke with Captain Bill Cipher elbowing him right in the face.

"Hey!" Dipper cried out, his voice muffled by plump pillows. He blinked quickly, the memories of what had happened yesterday breaking the dam of sleep and flooding him, overflowing his mind. His limbs, numb from where Bill had laid on them all night, and heavy with sleep, couldn't move fast enough as Dipper rolled around in Bill's bed, lashing out at them.

Bill slipped away from Dipper with ease, a maddening chuckle bubbling at their lips. "Already, my little birdie? We just woke up! Is this how you  _usually_ treat those you share a bed with?" A lewd grin split their face in two.

Dipper flinched, absolutely revolted at their words. "You're disgusting! I- I've never-!" His cheeks burned. Clenching his hands into fists, Dipper said nothing more as he tried to launch himself at Bill yet again.

Bill plucked his wrists out of the air with ease. They admired Dipper's hands as if they were fine gold pieces, and then with a sickening glint in their one eye, yanked Dipper up into the air by his wrists, pressing their noses together.

Dipper cried out in pain, his eyes flooding with tears. Bill bared their teeth, and licked them from Dipper's face. Dipper bit down on the whimpers of disgust that swelled in his chest, but a couple slipped out.

"You're so naughty, little birdie!" Bill cackled. However, they shifted so that Dipper's wrists were grasped in one hand, and their other arm wrapped around his hips. "And to think I was gonna even give you a good breakfast!"

Dipper perked up at Bill's words, the echoing pain in his bones beginning to subside. "Breakfast?" As the word was uttered, Dipper's stomach let out a ravenous roar.

Bill let out another grating laugh. "Indeed. But I guess it'll just be scraps and old grog for you!"

Dipper growled at that. "You bastard…."

"And that is the 3,267,618th time I've ever been called that!" Bill said.

"You've been keeping count of that?"

Bill hummed, but didn't answer. Instead, they strode over, and locked Dipper back up in his cage.

Dipper gripped the bars with a white-knuckled grip. His knees pressed into his soft chest as he glared at Bill. "Are you just going to keep me locked in here?" he yelled as Bill began to get dressed.

Bill's smooth skin, speckled with golden freckles, disappeared under the shade of night as they clasped their corset back on.

"Where else will I be putting ya? I told ya before, you act like an animal, and I'm gonna treat you like one!" Bill tossed their golden mess of curls back. They glanced behind their shoulder as they began swaggering over to the loveseat pushed up against the wall. Through the wild curls, all Dipper could see clearly was the tip of Bill's nose.

"You just stay there and be good and quiet. You start squawking again, yer not gonna get any food till tonight! And then I'll  _stuff_ you till you can barely  _move!"_ Bill leaned back against the loveseat, spreading their legs and flashing themselves at Dipper as they began pulling their fishnets up.

Dipper flushed and tore his eyes away from Bill. "So you're just going to leave me in this- this cage?" Dipper licked his chapped lips. A part of him- that pesky need for survival- wanted to ask Bill for water. Yet a greater part of him- that cold, bitter stone in his chest- quieted his question before it could form.

Dipper watched Bill as they dressed- clasping glittering buckles and retrieving their ivory sword and golden gun.

Bill swung their hat around on their finger before stuffing it on their head. Grinning at themself in the mirror- playfully biting their lower lip and pulling down their eyelid as they flicked their tongue out at their reflection- they whipped around and walked over to Dipper.

_Click, click, click._ The staccato heartbeat of their boots rang in the hollow of Dipper's chest.

"I feel like I'm forgettin' something…" they trailed off, then snapped their fingers. "Oh yeah!" Bill left briefly, then came back with a tankard of grog.

"You need to get some liquids in ya!" Bill snapped their hand forward, grabbing Dipper by the collar through the bars, then yanked him forward.

A cry escaped Dipper as the cage tilted, and his entire body tensed as his feet shuffled to catch himself. Every nerve in his body was alight, screaming at him that he were about to fall, and that yet again, only Bill could save him, and hold him up.

Dipper bared his teeth at Bill as they tipped the cup forward. The liquid  _appeared_ to be grog, but Dipper couldn't stop the doubt taking root in his chest. There could be  _anything_ in the grog Bill was offering him.

He couldn't  _possibly_ entertain the notion to drink!

Dipper pursed his lips, sealing them as Bill tried to tip the liquid into his mouth.

"Open up, you bilge rat!" Bill spat. Unable to get to Dipper's lips with their fingers wrapped in his shabby shirt, and also unable to peel back his lips with their other hand, Bill's lips twitched in irritation while their eye bulged out of their skull. "If ya don't drink, life is gonna be  _very_ unpleasant for ya!"

Dipper, in all his youth, couldn't stop himself from firing back at Bill, "you've already- ack!" As Dipper had opened his mouth, Bill had taken the chance to dump the grog onto his face.

Though most the lukewarm liquid splashed across Dipper's face, staining his shirt, he still got an entire mouthful of grog. Despite the burn of the alcohol biting away at his tongue and gums, Dipper found himself unable to continue to fight back against his body's natural reaction to greedily swallow.

The grog felt like a rock going down his gullet. It tasted of treason.

Bill barked a laugh, then dumped the rest of the grog on Dipper's face.

Now that he had a taste, Dipper could not fight his own dry tongue as he tipped his head back, catching as much of the liquid as he could, gulping it down. Once the tankard was empty, Bill carelessly dropped it, and let it roll away.

Dipper panted, and even his belly heaved with his breaths as he sat back. The grog in his belly rolled as Dipper peered up at Bill's expression, and the want to throw it back up on Bill overcame Dipper. However, despite that, Dipper couldn't find it in himself to try and trigger his gag reflex.

Bill smirked down at him as they let go of his shirt. "Better now?"

Dipper snorted, and kept his lips sealed this time.

Bill began laughing hard again, tossed their head back, and nearly caused his hat to fall off their head.

Before Dipper could gather a scrathing retort to fire at Bill, a loud, panicked knock echoed throughout the room.

Bill whipped around, and faster than what Dipper could believe, they were at the door and swinging it open.

"What?" they squawked, irritation clear in the tone of their voice.

"Captain, we found  _him!"_

Bill froze where they stood, and Dipper swore both their brain and whatever bloody muscle they had for a heart stopped beating. They stood as still as a statue, and Dipper hoped that somehow, Bill had turned to stone.

But no. Bill's back tensed, and though Dipper could not see their face, he could imagine the expression on their face.

"You- you did?!" Bill's voice dropped to a growl, and was edged with a mania that made every hair on the back of Dipper's neck stand on end.

The other pirate nodded, a hysterical glint in his eye. "Yes! Just off our port! Do- do you think  _he_ has-?"

The pirate never finished what he was saying. Bill shoved him to the side and took off without even a backward glance at Dipper.

Dipper hopped the pirate would leave the door open, but unfortunately, he flicked it closed behind Bill with a shuddering  _crack._

Dipper was left with nothing but the blue flickering light of magical torches, and lingering confusion as to what just happened.

~~0~~0~~0~~

Bill gripped the banister hard, almost falling over the edge as he leaned out into the open skies. Their gilded golden wings glittered in the open sun. The sharp grin splitting Bill's face was just as bright.

Across the firmament, gliding across the zephyr, and belching thick, white plumes of smoke, flew another ship. Several wings reminiscent of a dragons were bolted into the sides, shimmering with magic as they churned the air, continuously pushing the vessel forward. The ship was slightly smaller than Bill's. A black flag with a single purple square was raised.

Bill's eye bulged out of its socket. An odd, choking laugh resounded in the hollow of their chest.

Bill dragged their black tongue across their lips. "Well, boys. Would ya look at that? We've finally found 'im." Bill's wings twitched, and their shoulders trembled.

Pyronica flitted to Bill's side, her eye wide too. "Is- is that really…?"

Bill's grin flashed like lightning down at her. "Tad Strange has come back! Just for me!" Their mismatched eyes didn't tear once from Strange's vessel. "What are you all standing around waiting for?" they roared at their crew. "We're rammin' 'im out of the sky! Get to yer stations!"

The crew, which had gathered like storm clouds around Bill, broke, scurrying off to where they belonged. Bill turned and took off to man the wheel.

Bill's ship groaned a battle cry as it tilted, veering to the side.

Pyronica followed Bill, landing besides them once again. She vibrated with a nervous energy.

"Captain! Are- are we  _really_ gonna ram him?!"

Bill barked a laugh. "Of course we are! I don't lie! It's the  _only_ way to properly greet the traitor, after all!"

"But, ser-!"

Bill whipped around, thrusting their face into Pyronica's, close enough to kiss her, then snarled.

"Are you questioning me? We'll be fine! His vessel is pathetic!"

Pyronica flinched, stumbling back as Bill's ship straightened back out. Strange's vessel was lined up with the head of theirs.

Bill muttered some choice magical words under their breath, flipping levers on the console and slapping some buttons.

Violent runes carved into the planks of their vessel flashed a cerulean blue at the buzz of Bill's words while the machinery in the ship grunted and growled. Locking the ship in its course, Bill unfolded their wings, leaving Pyronica to man the wheel and console, and took off into the air.

Bill's gilded heels landed on the head of the bow, right at the crease where stained wood became deadly, but dented metal.

At the front of the bow, working as both a masthead and a means of destruction, was a sharp pyramid pointed outwards. In each of its four sides, a single eye was carved. They all glared in all directions, attempting to vaporize perceived enemies out of the air without lady luck on its side.

Bill stepped down onto the masthead, crouching down like a feral cat ready to pounce. Their wings pressed against their sides, fighting the wind blowing back their hair in a wild tangle. The feathers ruffled in the cold winds, puffing out to make Bill appear bigger.

Bill's claws scratched around the carving of the eye beneath them.

Strange's ship was slower than theirs. It wouldn't be able to maneuver out of the way in time.

And it didn't

Bill's ship bore down on Strange's, and with a sickening  _crack,_ the wood of the sides split with a screech.

The metal dragon wings of Strange's ship slammed into the bottom of Bill's ship, ripping out the brig.

Screams and battle cries alike rang out in the chilly zephyr. Canons fired, ripping machinery and men alike to bits.

Men that had no stations on Bill's ship took off into the air. Their swords and muzzle of their guns gleamed in the light. Bill led the cloud of "angels" into the awaiting fray, their own animalistic scream tearing from their throat.

Blood splattered. Battle cries were replaced by screams of pain and anger.

The scent of violence filled Bill's nostrils, and they shuddered in pleasure. This was what life was all about.

Bullets whizzing in the air. Their magic, crackling and burning all those that dared stand in their way. Swords clashing against one another in a deadly duel that would leave only one victor.

Bill's mouth watered. The knowledge of the finality of it all pleasured Bill in a way no person could ever compare to.

Tossing a charred body behind him and off Tad's ship, flames curled around Bill like deadly dragons as they stomped across the ship.

"Tad! Where are you?!" Bill roared, whipping around and sheathing their ivory sword into the belly of a pirate trying to cut off their head. With a flick of the wrist, the corpse went flying.

Bill brandished their now crimson sword. They bared their glittering fangs, their single eye roving all around. "Tad!" Bill cried out again, above the boisterous battle raging around them. "Come out! You  _coward."_

"I am far from being a coward,  _Bill."_ From behind the Golden Devil, Tad had spat Bill's name like a curse.

Bill whipped around on the edge of their heel. Their face split into a severe grin at the sight of Tad.

"Oh, Taddy-boy. You never change," Bill purred. Tad looked the exact same as last time, though his curly black hair was now plastered to his pale forehead with sweat, and his angular amethyst eyes shone with the entire open sky in them.

Tad barely twitched. "Don't call me that," he growled.

Bill smirked and sashayed their hips as they walked toward him. Their grin widened as they caught Tad's eyes darting to their long legs as they slid in and out of the darkness of their skirt.

"I'll call you whatever I damn well please,  _Taddy-boy,"_ Bill said. They spun their sword in their palm as they stood toe-to-toe with the other captain.

Tad glared up into Bill's eye, but said nothing.

"You took something from me, Tad Strange. I  _know_ you did. And I would like it back now," Bill said in a hushed tone. Despite the screams of battle around them, the splattering blood, and the  _crack_ of canon going off as well as gunshots, Tad could hear Bill perfectly fine.

"You don't deserve it back, Bill. Not after all the things you've done."

Bill growled and in a flash, had their sword at Tad's neck. They tensed, however, and glanced down.

Their sword was at his neck, but his gun was aimed at their belly.

Even with their corest, if a single bullet struck Bill, they knew they'd be sleeping with the birds forever.

Bill's growl in the back of their throat swelled. An infuriating smirk played on Tad's lips.

"Don't look so high and mighty, Taddy-boy. You had  _plenty_ of fun with me and my crew. You're hardly one to talk about what someone  _deserves."_

Tad shivered at Bill's words, but held fast and steady.

"I am well aware of that, but those mistakes are in my past, and now that I am looking toward the future, I am willing to redeem myself."

Anger filled Bill's eye. Their entire face burned hot red with fury. "Mistakes?! That's what you called what we had? A mistake?!"

"What else would I call it, Bill?"

Bill narrowed their eye. "The only reason why I had left you alive for this long." Opening their mouth, with their tongue lashing out, Bill belched a column of blue flames directly at Tad's vulnerable face.

Tad cried out in pain. He wrenched himself back away from Bill. However, it was too late. Flames clung to his flesh, eating away at his cheeks, mouth, and neck. He dropped his gun as he struggled to pat the flames out with his gloved hands.

Bill cawed in triumph. They swung his sword, slicing Tad right through the sternum. Blood followed the arc of his crimson blade, and splattered on the pale deck.

Tad collapsed backward. He coughed, and blood bubbled along with spittle across his pink bottom lip.

Bill grinned and casually strode over to where Tad had collapsed. They planted their stiletto boot on his chest.

Tad coughed. He weakly grasped at Bill's gilded gold boot.

"Where is it?" Bill snarled.

Tad blinked blearily. Blood trickled down the side of his mouth. He shook his head. "This- this is…."

Bill cocked their head to the side. They leaned in closer to Tad, their hair falling around the both of them.

Tad peered up at Bill through narrowed eyes. Golden curls surrounded him, mimicking that of the morning Heavens, but at the heart of it all, was a face carved inside the very pit of Hell itself.

"What? Speak faster!" Bill said.

Tad shook his head. "This- this just proves it."

"Proves what?"

"Why- why I l- left you," Tad panted. He blinked quicker, life draining from him rapidly. "You- you ca- care for no one bu- but yourself. L- Love eludes you."

Bill blinked slowly. A cruel laugh began to bubble in their chest. They nearly doubled over as it spilled forth from their lips like poison.

"Loving me was your mistake, not mine," Bill said as their laughter drew to a halt. "Now, where's my map?"

Tad grinned. His teeth shone scarlet with his blood. "Wh- why would I- I tell you? I- I'm al- already dy- dying. No- not even mag- magic can s- save me- me now. Y- you've lost, B- Bill Cipher."

Bill roared. They snapped a hand down, squeezing Tad's throat. "No!  _You're_ the one who's lost! You're  _dying!"_ Bill lifted Tad's head up off the deck, then slammed it back down.

Tad's eyes rolled in his head like a pair of dice.

"You're the loser here! Not me!" With every word Bill spat, they continuously slammed Tad's head down on the deck. His skull  _cracked,_ and blood began seeping from his black hair and smearing where his head landed.

"I'll find the map even without your help! You're the loser here, not  _me!_ I  _don't_ lose!" Bill screamed.

Tad had been dead for several minutes by the time Bill dropped him, and straightened back up.

Bill glared down at Tad's corpse. "I don't need you. I never did. I can find the map all by myself."

Sheathing their sword up, Bill whipped around on their heels, and stalked away in search of the map Tad Strange had stolen from them so long ago.

They, not once, glanced back at Tad's still body.

~~0~~0~~0~~

Dipper startled when the door was flung open with a  _bang!_

Bill, with their hair a bird's nest atop their head, drenched in sweat and blood, stomped in. Their lips twitched, agitated, and his eye had no nonsense dancing in it at all.

Dipper gulped and leaned back away from them. He had heard the cannons go off, had  _felt_ the ship tilt and groan as it suffered heavy amounts of damage. The bruises blooming on his arms and legs from being rattled side to side in his cage proved it so.

"What's going on?" Dipper demanded. He tensed up his shoulders, though winced at his throbbing wounds.

Bill said nothing- something that alarmed Dipper more than he'd ever admit. They marched over to his cage, unlocked it with their key, and reached in, grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt, and hauled him out.

"Bill! What-?!" Dipper kicked at Bill, but if Bill were bothered, they didn't show it. They snarled at Dipper.

"If you don't quit that, I'll cut your eyes out and make you eat them."

Dipper stopped kicking, but continued to struggle.

Bill growled under their breath, and proceeded to toss Dipper over their shoulder.

Dipper froze. "What's going on?" he repeated.

"You're going to give me a little entertainment, birdy."

Dipper began kicking again. "Entertainment?!"

"Indeed," Bill hissed. "Now shush. I am hardly in the mood for your antics."

Dipper snorted. "Like I give a crap about that." He continued to squirm.

Bill growled, but held onto the squirmy boy with a tight grip. They carried Dipper out onto the main deck, and dropped him unceremoniously in the center.

Dipper cried out in pain as his wounds were jostled. He rubbed his aching arms and back, slowly sitting up, and winced.

A soft gasp escaped Dipper, and his mouth fell open as he surveyed the deck.

Carnage had raked its bloody fingers across Bill's vessel. Bullets had splintered wood, dried drops of blood still shone scarlet in the glittering sunlight, and the entire boat creaked underneath him, rocking side-to-side ominously.

"What- what  _happened_ here?" Dipper whispered.

Bill grinned at Dipper's horrified distress. They crouched down, wrapping an arm around Dipper's shoulders.

"What do you think happened?" Bill dragged their tongue from Dipper's jawline all the way up to the bottom of his ear.

Dipper shivered in disgust and tried to shove Bill off him with little success.

"Who- who did you fight?" Dipper peered up at Bill with huge eyes.

Bill cackled. "Now, why would I tell you  _that?_ It's hardly important, my little birdie."

Dipper scrunched up his nose and shook his head. "I'm guessing you won though, huh?"

Bill snorted and slapped Dipper upside the head. Dipper cried out, gripping either side of his temples. "Ow! Hey!"

"What? That was a stupidass question! Do ya see me dead? Of  _course_ I won!" Bill shook their head, and their voice dropped down into a low, rumbling growl. "I  _always_ win."

Ice filled Dipper's veins at that. He shivered, and tried to scoot away from Bill. Much to Dipper's joy, Bill did indeed let Dipper go, and stood back up.

Dipper eyed Bill as they slipped away from him, but stayed hovering around him. "Stand up," Bill commanded.

Dipper narrowed his eyes. He did not stand up.

Bill snarled and grabbed Dipper's arm. They yanked him up to his feet.

Dipper, unable to muffle his cries, teared up at the rough treatment, and wavered on his feet.

Bill tsked and shook their head. "Look alive, birdie. The reason why you're here is approaching."

Dipper frowned. "The reason I'm…." Dipper trailed off as he peered past Bill. His eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open in horror.

Two blonds- twins- limped toward him and Bill. Their hands bound, with swords at their backs, they hung their heads in fear, shame, or perhaps even both. Dipper couldn't quite tell.

Bill grinned, baring every sharp fang in their disgusting mouth. Their black forked tongue slithered out of their mouth, lapping at their lips as if in preparation for a meal.

Both twins gasped in pain- the boy with snow-white hair a little louder than his sister- as the swords jabbed against their backs. They both fell upon their knees. Their chains jangled deafeningly around their wrists.

Dipper shivered at the all-too familiar sound.

"What- what is this?" Dipper asked.

Instead of answering, Bill grabbed him by the scruff again, and dragged him over to the twins. They dropped him on his feet.

"Pyronica! Get over here and make sure our little birdie doesn't try and throw 'imself off the side again!" Bill barked.

Dipper didn't bother glancing behind as Pyronica scuttled up behind him. The sound of a bullet clicking into a chamber to told Dipper all he needed to know if he attempted throwing himself out into open skies once more.

Besides getting shot in the leg, Dipper certainly wasn't in the mood to be caught in the air by Bill again.

Instead, Dipper stared down at the twins forced to their knees before him.

Bill walked around and stood between the two kids.

_Kids._ Just like him. Just like Mabel. Captured by the Golden Devil.

Dipper glared up at Bill, trying his best to muster all the loathing he had in his heart for the dreadful captain in his gaze alone.

Bill, much to Dipper's anger, merely stared back with cool amusement.

"These were the only two survivors off the other ship," Bill said. They clicked their tongue. "Thought they could stow-away on 'ere and get away with it. Never in all my immortal  _life_ has a stow-away gotten safe passage on my ship! Ain't that right, boys!" Bill called out to the crew gathering around them.

The crew cheered. Bill drew their ivory sword.

Dipper bit his tongue to prevent himself from asking another question. No use in trying when Bill was too busy bathing in the catcalls and cheers swirling around them.

"However!" Bill said, thrusting their sword into the air to silence their crew. "I am a forgiving captain-"

Dipper couldn't hold in his soft snort at that.

"-and as such, I have decided only one will have to pay for both their crimes!" Bill dropped their sword back down. "And, as a special treat to our newest crew member, I have picked him to be our judge!"

A few in the surrounding crew's cheers dropped down into low, unsure mutters. However, Pyronica's caterwauls for both blood and glory soothed their uncertainty, and the cheering swelled once more.

Dipper's mouth, however, had gone dry. Bone-dry. His blood drained from his already pallid face. A chill wracked him- one not caused by his own cooling sweat in the blustering wind.

"W- What?!" Dipper croaked, his eyes popping from his skull. "You- you want me to- to-!"

Bill cackled. "Indeed! You get to choose which one of these gutter rats get to fly with the birds, so to speak." Bill scraped his sword against the ground, carving a smooth groove into the wood.

The two twins had gone pale and still at Bill's decision. They both jerked their faces up at the same time to peer pleadingly at Dipper.

They tried to cry out from behind their gags, but it did no good.

Even though Dipper could not understand them, his heart still ached. He didn't  _need_ to understand them. Their eyes told him everything he needed to know.

Dipper flicked his eyes between the both of them, horrified. "But- but-!"

Bill tapped their sword against the deck. "Don't take  _too_ long, my little birdie. We don't have  _all_ day."

Around them, the crew began making bets on which one of the twins would be killed.

The girl on the right had golden hair spun from the sun. Her pale, icy blue eyes glared into Dipper's own, demanding him to point to her, to damn  _her_ to blood, if only to keep her brother alive. She still struggled to speak, still squirmed where she kneeled, but Dipper  _knew_ what she was attempting to convey to her.

Likewise, when Dipper's eyes rolled to the male twin, he too wore a similar, yet opposite look of his sister. His baby-blue eyes demanded for his own blood to be spilled. His freckled, chubby cheeks puffed out in defiance. Though fear held him in a paralyzing grip, he was ready to face Death.

In that moment, he  _had_ to be.

Dipper clenched his fists and tore his eyes from the twins. He glared at Bill. "No."

Bill cocked their head. No surprise filtered through their eye. "No?"

Dipper bared his teeth. "I will not be apart of your games. I- I will not be apart of this murder!"

Boos echoed around him. Pyronica jabbed her gun against his shoulder.

Dipper's eyes fell back to the twins. They lingered on the girl, however. Tears began tracing down Dipper's cheeks.

This couldn't be a coincidence. There was no way. Bill knew about Mabel. But then again, Bill  _was_ the one to pluck him from the sky.

The knowledge of that fact merely fueled Dipper's hatred.

Bill raised his sword up, and rested it against the boy twin's throat.

The girl squirmed, screaming behind her gag. Fresh tears sprung from her eyes.

"So, you want me to kill the boy then, huh?" Bill stared unblinking at Dipper, triumph smeared across their face.

Dipper tore his eyes from the girl. "No! I told you, I won't choose either of them!"

Bill's lip curled. "No? You won't save the girl- the sister- from death?"

Dipper's heart clenched.

That girl was not Mabel. No one could replace Mabel. No one could stand-in for Mabel.

Though his heart went out to her, she was not Mabel.

Dipper pressed his lips into a thin line, and crossed his arms. He didn't even bother Bill with a response.

A frustrated snarl ripped past Bill's lips. They pulled their sword back from the boy, only to draw their gun with their other hand.

The bullet clicked into the chamber within the first second. In the next second, the muzzle of the gun pointed down at the girl, and the tip of their ivory sword pressed against the boy's throat.

In the third second, a shot rang out, shattering the cool Heavens, and the gurgle of blood bubbled as a sword slipped through flesh.

In the fourth second, two different pools of blood seeped from two corpses, and through the boards of the deck.

Dipper collapsed to his knees. A scream he had struggling to swallow refused to stay silent any longer, and tore from his throat. Snot, saliva, and tears traced down his red and puffy face.

The crew around him cursed his name for not playing their game, but in the same breath cheered for the homicide.

Dipper didn't bother looking up at Bill when they strode over to him. He stared at their boots, their shiny, gilded gold boots. Flecks of blood clung to the toes.

Sharp claws dug into his hair, but all Bill did was lean close to Dipper, pressing their lips against his ear.

"Sometimes, a terrible choice is better than no choice at all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am indeed bringing this fic out of hiatus. I am also going to try and aim for shorter chapters for this fic, and it will probably be the fic I work on when I need to work through writer's block with my other projects.
> 
> That being said, I am not promising consistent uploads or anything. Maybe I'll get the next chapter written within a week, maybe within three months, who knows. I certainly don't! But this fic will be finished sooner or later, and I do hope you all still enjoy it.
> 
> Also, I will still be answering all comments you guys have as always! 
> 
> kudos and comments are really greatly appreciated! Especially since it's been so long this fic has been updated and I am nervous and unsure if anyone is still even interested in it anymore. If you are, and would like to see more, please leave a comment if you can. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for reading!


	6. Ταξίδι στη θάλασσα

Pyronica's hands glowed a bright, iridescent hot pink as little sparks of flames danced across her fingers and palms. Furrowing her eyebrows, she pressed both hands against the map canister Bill had retrieved from Strange's crumbling ship.

The map they had been searching for had been sealed away within a golden canister capped with ivory on both sides. Pictures of a terrifying land full of monsters twined with protective runes warding off evil and those with hearts of corruption wrapped around the canister.

Pyronica's sneaky little flames dug down into the crevices of the images, struggling to burn the magic away. But then the runes flashed a hot white, just as they had done in reaction to Bill's magic, and Pyronica's little flames were dispersed.

A curse slipped from Pyronica's lips and she shot an apologetic glance at Bill. "Sorry, captain. It's warded against my magic as well."

Bill growled. Yanking the canister from Pyronica's hands, they flung it across their office of greed. It clattered loudly against the wall, and fell into a pile of broken treasures within a box bolted to the ground.

Of course, this did nothing to break the seals. The canister remained intact.

"Oh, Strange. You conniving little  _bitch."_ Bill stomped back over to the wall, their heels clacking dangerously against the wooden floors as they retrieved the canister. "You've outdone yourself this time, truly, but don't you dare think it'll stop  _me."_  Bill's hands exploded with cerulean flames, which leapt high into the air, nearly licking the arched ceiling. Bill's shadow was tossed behind them in a crooked, long mockery of their own self.

Pyronica flung her hands up in front of her face, turning away from the explosion of blue light. Heat prickled her arms, singeing the fine hair on her arms.

When the flames and heat dissipated, Pyronica dropped her arms. Bill stood, chest heaving in anger, gripping the canister tight in their clawed hands.

"I.  _Will._ Break. You. Open," Bill snarled. Each word pierced the air, making the temperature drop, and making Pyronica shiver with a chill.

"Ser," she began slowly, licking her lips. Her voice cracked with a little tint of fear, and for a second, she didn't know whether or not to finish her thought.

But Bill turned to her, a mad and demanding gleam in their one eye, and Pyronica broke.

"If we cannot break the seals, we could find someone who can." She tapped her chin, pulling back further away from Bill. "What about that little fellow you have locked up?"

Bill paushed. "My little birdie?" They mulled over the thought, tapping their claws against the golden canister.  _Click click click._ "He is but a child. Besides, when he had to sew my finger back on-" Bill wagged the fully healed finger at Pyronica, who shivered again, "-he acted like he'd never seen magic before!" Bill returned their gaze to the canister. "Besides, we'd need someone who knows what they're doing to break this. Not some  _child."_

Pyronica sighed. "That is true." She held her tongue for half a second, then said, "Ser, maybe we should set a course for The Mindscape?"

"The Mindscape? Why should we head there?" Bill responded. It was true that The Mindscape was one of the few ports that had not yet banned their ship from entry, but that didn't mean they were  _liked_ there.

On the contrary, Bill was certain that there was no place on Earth or in the Heavens they could go and be liked. The thought sent a thrill of pleasure down their spine.

"Many people pass through that port. It's the last one before heading out west into the unknown," Pyronica reminded them carefully. "I am sure we could find someone who could break the seal on the canister."

Bill tapped their chin. They strode over to their desk, and collapsed into their chair. "Perhaps. But then we'd have every other pirate and adventurer and who knows  _what_ on our tails if word about where  _this_ map leads gets out!"

Pyronica nodded slowly. "Perhaps, but isn't that worth the risk? Besides, we could easily kill whoever tries to steal it, or follows us with ease, ser."

A wicked grin split Bill's lips. "That is true, Pyronica."

Pyronica's eyes lit up at their phrase. "And! And, ser, if I may be so bold, I think I know someone would could help us break the seal to the canister. We could pay for her silence too, if that is at all possible."

Bill placed the canister on their desk, right over the compass on the map unfurled before them. "My dear Pyronica, I would give up any and all wealth I currently have and could possibly accumulate to have this seal broken safely. Who is it that you know?"

Pyronica's lips quirked into a wide smile. "The varmint Wendy Corduroy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short, but I do have some good news: the next chapter is actually already written. I need to edit it, but that's it! That being said, I am gonna try and stay one chapter ahead so, when I begin writing the 8th chapter, I'll post the next one. Again, I have no idea how long this will take. That being said, I am now roughly halfway through this fic! Which is pretty exciting since I love finishing things
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos, as always, are very much appreciated!


	7. Σπασμένος

Dipper cried out as his cage swung back and forth, like an agonizing pendulum. He clung to the bars, tensed, as the rocking slowly began to still.

"What's happening?" he called out to the empty room around him. Of course, the room didn't answer back, and responded in silence.

Dipper scowled and pawed at the bars of his cage, stretching his fingers through the slots to touch the lock.

The metal burned cold under his touch, and of course, Dipper had nothing to pick the lock with, rendering his meek attempts pointless.

Dipper, once more, found himself sitting back as his cage stopped tilting so much. The ship had stopped.

Confusion creased Dipper's brow, and he hugged his knees close to his chest. Perhaps they were restocking? They  _had_ lost a lot, after all….

A pang went through Dipper, and he pressed his face into his arms. He squeezed his eyes so tight, colors flashed behind his lids.

Blood-red flashes pierced Dipper's mind, and his eyes flew back open.

Lost.

He was losing everyone, it seemed. Even those he didn't know.

Misery swelled up in Dipper's gut, his chest, and his head. His eyes grew hot, pressure building up behind him, but they didn't even quite mist over.

It seemed he had ran out of tears. A bitter laugh cracked Dipper's lips.

Was he already losing himself as well? Or perhaps he already  _had_ lost himself. When Mabel fell. When his family burned. When those two poor twins had their life so  _violently_ ripped from them.

Dipper pressed his head back against the bars of the cage. Perhaps he was indeed losing himself. But now that he had spent so much time with himself, with his own grief consuming every thought, that grief had begun to change. To morph. To become something  _new,_ something even greater.

Instead of wet sorrow, burning rage swelled in the cavity of Dipper's chest. His tear stains evaporated with the heat swirling in his cheeks while a vein popped in his forehead.

Death still mattered to Dipper. But he wouldn't face Death until Bill joined him in a grave. He would not die unless he was taking Bill down with him.

If only that was so easy, though. Attacking them outright, lashing out, would give Dipper no results.

It overflowed Dipper with bitterness, but also hardened his resolve further.

He would wait. He  _could_ wait. He'd wait until the perfect time arose.

Then, he would  _strike._

~~0~~0~~0~~

When Bill came to fetch Dipper, he couldn't help the confusion whirling through him.

Bill had barely spoken a word to him. Besides one of those strange and gruesome threats, they were lost in their own head.

As sunlight met Dipper's eyes, and as he was led across the blood-and-gold flecked deck, his eyes widened at the sight of a familiar port unfolded before him.

The Mindscape. The last port before the wild and weird skies of the west.

The place made his heart race. His head began a slow pounding with an oncoming headache. It always did.

Dipper wished he knew why.

"Remember, if you run, if you do anything at all, I shall cut off your legs and hang them over your cage, so the blood and rot drips on you," Bill growled.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "If you do so, I'll bite off your  _other_ fingers off."

Bill cuffed Dipper painfully in the side of the hair. Dipper squeaked in pain, but smirked.

If Bill caught his expression, they didn't say anything. They shoved him into Pyronica. "Watch him."

Pyronica gripped Dipper's wrist painfully tight. "Why are we even bringing this kid anyways?" she grumbled. "Let's just leave him in his cage."

Bill shook their head, a wicked grin splitting their lips. "Because! I wanna bond with the kid!"

Dipper scowled. "I'm right here, you know!"

Bill ruffled his hair. Dipper snapped his teeth at them.

"Oh, I am aware, my little birdie. Your feistiness continues to be the biggest turn on about you."

Horror etched itself across Dipper's face, and his cheeks flamed. "Ew!"

Pyronica turned her face away from Bill, looking a little sick herself. She said nothing, however, and merely followed her captain.

As the three stepped onto the decks of The Mindscape, Dipper couldn't stop himself from staring everywhere.

He had been to The Mindscape once before, but it still took his breath away. The zephyr buzzed around him, whistling in his ears, crackling with magic and chatter. People bustled all around the three, different species, different creatures, but all mingling into one soul. Shops and bars had been built crushed together, zig-zagging randomly, creating crooked pathways between. Neither the words "rhyme" or "reason" fit The Mindscape.

Boisterous gangs hung around the bars, members already drunk whistling at dagger-happy ladies that passed. Few guards milled about, and those that did carried severe expressions with sharp eyes and darker smirks.

The Mindscape, built by ruffians and for ruffians, was no place for any child. Yet, Dipper had walked the decks and pathways once before.

Dipper clamped down on that bubbling emotion deep in his chest, and tried his best to sharpen his own amazed gaze into a hard glare. Considering how Bill snickered as they glanced at him, Dipper figured he wasn't too successful.

"Where are we even going? Why are were here?" Dipper asked.

Bill rolled their eyes. The three of them turned left, down an abandoned alleyway. Dipper stiffened, and stepped closer to Pyronica.

"I don't know if you've noticed yet, my cute little birdie, but my beautiful vessel has a bit of damage to it."

Pyronica quirked her lips and rose her eyebrows. "A  _bit?"_

Bill nodded once. "A bit, indeed. So we shall stay docked here as long as it will take them to fix it, which, really, shouldn't be  _too_ long. I got Casters to work on it. We'll be traveling out in a matter of days. Most likely less than that, even. If said Casters know what's good for them"

"If we're just here to fix the ship, then why are we wandering about?" Dipper continued. Coldness grasped his heart. What if Bill was taking  _him_ somewhere certain? What if they had some sort of nefarious plan with  _him_ involved?

Dipper had  _no_ idea what could be rattling in Bill's mind. He suspected no one really did. But the fear persisted.

Bill hummed, as if deep in thought. "We're going on a quest."

"A  _quest?_ Does that mean you're gonna pillage some poor village and hold children for ransom or something?" Dipper asked.

Bill roared with laughter, nearly doubling over. They even wiped a tear from their eye. Pyronica and Dipper both traded looks as Bill shook their head, trying and failing to smother the piercing sound spilling from their lips.

"Not  _this_ time, my little birdie! Good question, however. But no. We are going to get a map unsealed."

"A map unsealed?" Dipper's heart raced further. "What do you mean? Why?"

"Because quest!" Bill repeated, as if that one word held all the answers.

Dipper groaned.

They turned down a few more pathways, doubled-back once, and finally, they stopped in front of a wretched little stand. A worn red tarp fluttered in the wind, casting a shadow over the person standing on the other side of the table.

The shadows did nothing to conceal her fiery red hair, which rivaled the color of kings itself. The woman, dressed in a simple corset and leather breeches. Somehow, as her gazed raked across the three of them, her already freckled yet pallid face paled further.

Dipper didn't blame the poor woman for looking as if she had just seen a ghost. Bill's reputation preceded them.

Dipper did not notice that the woman's gaze did not linger on Bill, but on him instead.

"Wendy Corduroy?" Bill ventured, leaning heavily on their palms.

Wendy forced her eyes away from Dipper, and stared at Bill. "That's me. But saying my name doesn't tell me what you want. So, what do you want?"

Bill shook their long golden curls back. Their lips curled. "Do you treat all your customers with such hospitality."

"Only the ones who deserve as such."

Bill barked a bitter, fake laugh. "I see. Well, I shall get straight to my business, then. I need your magic skills to break open this." Bill pulled a golden and ivory canister from their hip. They kept a tight grip on it as they presented it to Wendy.

Wendy's eyes widened in shock. They darted over to Dipper, and hope shined in them as well.

A chill wracked Dipper. Something was not right. But he couldn't understand what.

"Lemme guess," Wendy said, licking her lips. "You want me to unseal this map for you."

"Good guess. Indeed I do. The price it'll take is irrelevant. Name any price. I am sure I can compensate." Bill's wolfish grin returned.

Wendy's eyes darted between the canister and Dipper. When Dipper met her eyes, he couldn't understand the  _pleading_ that shined in them.

Dipper shuffled foot-to-foot. He tapped the inside of Pyronica's wrist. "What's going on?"

Pyronica groaned, but bent down to swiftly explain.

Wendy's eyes returned to Bill. Her eyebrows drew together in determination. "Very well. I'll break your seal on this map, as long as you agree to take me with you when you begin following it,  _Bill Cipher."_

Bill tilted their head to the side, and an odd light danced in their one eye. Their uneasy grin became strained. "Sounds good to me, Wendy the Varmint. Let's shake on it then, hmm? To seal this deal." Bill held out their hand. Blue flames danced in their palm, curling around their fingers.

Wendy's nose scrunched up. "I know all 'bout those who make  _deals_ with you,  _Cipher._ I ain't falling for it."

Bill's face twisted into an ugly sneer, and they closed their palm into a fist, snuffing the flames out. "Fine then. Just unseal this stupid canister then, will you? And don't be  _slow_ about it."

Wendy sneered at Bill. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to the canister. She picked it up carefully, and peered at the carvings and ivory caps with her lips twisted into a small, thoughtful frown. She held one of the ends up to her ear, and gave it a little shake."

"If you damage my map…" Bill growled, but their words fell on deaf ears as Wendy placed the canister back down.

Brows furrowed in concentration, Wendy turned to the side and took out a roll of tools, along with several small vials which held swirling magic. Taking a pinch of stardust and sprinkling it across the surface of the canister, she began carefully etching new runes over the old ones.

Bill's growls swelled as she continued to carve into their canister, but Wendy paid them no heed as she finished her first carving. Picking up one of her vials, she uncorked it and poured pure, concentrated magic along the new carvings.

The new runes flashed a bright pink, while the older ones flashed cyan. A little glimmer of cockiness glinted in Wendy's eyes, and the corner of her mouth tilted up. She proceeded to carve in two more lines of runes and pour in two more vials of concentrated magic.

Purple flashed; red flashed; green flashed; gold flashed.

Bill's fingers twitched. Wendy pulled back with a triumphant grin. "Done."

A wide grin crackled Bill's lips and they scooped up the canister. With a shaking hand, they pried one of the caps off with ease.

From besides Bill, Dipper crinkled up his nose at the musty smell that leaked from the open map canister. What was Bill even  _up_ to?

"Happy,  _ser?"_ Wendy practically purred, leaning over her table. Her eyes darted to Dipper once more, then snapped back to Bill. "My side of our deal has been fulfilled. Now, it's your turn."

Bill resealed the canister and hooked it back around them. "Oh, I don't think so, Corduroy. The first thing you should learn in these types of dealings is that you  _never_ trust a hand not shaken." Mad laughter spilled from Bill's lips and before Wendy could lash out at them, they grabbed Dipper.

"Pyronica! With me!"

Bill unfurled their wings, and shot into the sky with Pyronica right behind them.

DIpper cried out in fear and clung to Bill as his footing was torn from him for not the first time. He wrapped himself around Bill, burying his face into their chest.

Bill hugged him close, and their low laughter ruffled his hair. They whispered something into the crown of Dipper's head, but Dipper had no hopes to hear them with the wind whipping around them both.

Trading dark and jubilant looks, Bill and Pyronica flew back over to where their ship had been docked, nothing but the taste of victory on their tongues.

On the ground, watching the three disappear into the zephyr, the varmint known as Wendy Corduroy watched on, terror cracking her face, and nostalgic tears tracing down her cheeks.

She tightened her hands into fists, and struggled to swiftly wipe her tears away. All she did was smear them across her reddening face.

She had heard of what happened to the Pines family. She had thought it had all been lost. But even now, seeing the youngest of them alive, no real hope shimmered in her heart; just a long shadow that cast dread to even hope.

Still, her lips parted. "Oh, Dipper," Wendy whispered. "It truly is up to you now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a little bit of a longer chapter, so yeah, hope y'all enjoy. Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


	8. Μάτι

As soon as Bill, Pyronica, and Dipper returned to Bill's ship, Bill stuffed Dipper back into his cage, and set sail west on the wild open skies.

Dipper caterwauled and demanded to be let out to no avail as the newly fixed ship rocked back and forth.

However, though Dipper was locked up tight back in his cage, the door Bill usually kept closed swung upon with the rocking of the winds. When Dipper sealed his lips, and pricked his ears forward as well, he could hear Bill and Pyronica's faraway voices, surely pouring over the map Bill had gotten unsealed earlier that day.

Dipper grimaced, but he couldn't stop himself from eavesdropping. Perhaps he could overhear them say something that would be helpful in his escape? Or, perhaps, maybe he would learn more about the surly Captain Bill Cipher themself.

Sickness roiled in the pit of Dipper's stomach. The last thing he wanted to know  _more_ about was Bill Cipher, but still, he clamped down on those ill feelings within him, and pushed all his attention forward.

"This is it, Pyronica!" Dipper could hear Bill hiss in the other room, the shadow of the feather in their hat bobbing as they bounced on their feet. "The map to  _Gravity Falls._ Tad may have put our plans back, but here it is once again!"

Pyronica voiced her agreement, leaning over the map herself. Dipper couldn't quite pick her expression from her voice. "It's even closer than what I thought, too… but are you sure it's safe, ser? Are we really going to be able to go there? Gravity Falls fell to the corruption of The Nightmare Realm years ago-"

Bill cackled, and Dipper watched as he pinched Pyronica's cheek. "Oh, trust me! I know  _all_ about  _that_ corruption! The issue was finding my place  _back,_ but here I am, my memories restored. Getting there will take naught but a few days!"

Dipper frowned. The back of his head tingled, pulsating with an odd, almost-headache. Nightmare Realm? Corruption?  _Gravity Falls…._

Why did it all sound so  _familiar?_

Dipper's throat constricted, his heart pounding in the base of his esophagus. Slowly, he rose a hand to press a couple of fingers against the hollow of his collar bone.

_Why?_ He mouthed to himself.

Shaking his head to clear his crescendoing thoughts, Dipper pressed his face against the bars of the cage to continue to listen to Bill and Pyronica.

"-we'll get to the heart of The Nightmare Realm, the Fearymid. And once there, I'll finally get it back, Pyronica. My  _Eye."_

"Your eye? The Eye of the Beast?"

"Yes! The Eye of the Beast! It belongs to noone but  _me!"_ Bill spun around in their room.

"Doesn't The Eye like… grant wishes or something…?"

Bill giggled. "One wish. The Eye of the Beast is said to grant one wish to whomever uses it." Bill paused heavily. "Any wish at all.

Dipper gasped. They weren't telling the whole truth. That pause…. It was a similar pause that Stan always did when scrounging up extra words and lies to throw. The pause lasted half of a beat, but the entire universe weighted within that small pocket of time.

Bill was hiding something. Not just hiding  _something,_ however. It had to be something  _big_ if they were hiding it from even  _Pyronica_ of all people.

Dipper grit his jaw. The only way to find out what Bill was hiding, and even stop their plans, is to stay alive, something not  _too_ terribly difficult for right now, but more than that, get on Bill's  _good_ side….

Dipper's entire body wracked with a disgusted shiver.

He'd rather drown in grog, get eaten bit by bit by bilge rats, and be slow-cooked over a fire until his blood came to a boil and blisters popped on his bones.

Rather do any and all that then play a  _game_ with Bill. But he had no choice in the matter, now did he?

Dipper grit his jaw. Whatever it'd take, he'd stop Bill. He'd travel to The Nightmare Realm, find this Eye of the Beast, and then he'd wish the Captain Bill Cipher had never existed in the  _first_ place.

On the very ashes of his now gone family, splattered far away and down below, Dipper swore it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter; the next one is already written up and it is much longer. As always, I'll post chapter 9 once I am done writing chapter 10.
> 
> Thanks for reading, comments and kudos are appreciated!


	9. Μαρκαρισμένος

"Can you taste it, Pyronica?"

"Taste what, ser?"

"The remains of armageddon."

Bill stood at the bow of their ship, standing on that deadly and pointed figurehead once more. They parted their mouth, inhaling as the taste of smoke as it rolled over their tongue.

Before, it had been hard to see the wisps of smoke tainting the horizon of the darkening western skies. Now, though, as morning struggled to peak the Earth once more, there was no denying the scar that laced the firmament around and above them all. The sky burned blood-red, gaping black holes puncturing the color as if someone had taken a sword to it.

In a way, someone  _had._

Bill opened up their arms and wings to the firmament, purring as the wind rippled around them, tickling the feathers in their wings. Giddiness shot through them, twisting their lips into an unnaturally wide smile.

"Oh, Gravity Falls. It is good to be back," Bill whispered to themselves. They narrowed their eye, and through the glass scope screwed into their empty socket, they peered far out into the hazy distance, where two strange mountains loomed, connected by a railroad long since abandoned.

"Pyronica!"

"Yes, ser?!"

"Within the hour, we should reach the top of where Gravity Falls is located. We are to land on the mountain to the right, and then make our way down."

Pyronica nodded. "Would you like me to inform the rest of the crew, ser?"

Bill hummed, tapping their chin thoughtfully. They tilted their head to the side, and their golden cascade of hair whipped around them in a wild, flaming tangle. "Yes, go ahead. But, Pyronica?"

"Ser?"

Bill glanced at her out of the corner of their eye. "Only me, you, and my little birdie will be traveling down to Gravity Falls. Everyone else is to make sure no one follows us and to kill anyone who happens to appear."

Pyronica nodded, but a question still remained on her tongue. "But ser, if I may be so bold to say, aren't we the only ones with the map?"

Bill grunted. "That doesn't mean someone can't just happen to stumble upon this place. Plus, it is possible Strange made copies of the map… unlikely, but possible. I want  _everyone_ to keep an eye out for any possible intruders. Got that?"

"Yes, ser!" Pyronica saluted Bill before scurrying away.

Bill turned back to face forward. Through their scoped eye, the twin mountains jutted out from an odd, murky, puke pink cloud far below. The fog rolled out from the valley, obscuring everything from sight, and twisted into an odd, circular shape, as if held back by some sort of strange magic.

Bill's lips twisted into a wider grin than before while pure, white-hot ire burned in their real eye.

Deep within those weird clouds laid their Eye; The Eye of the Beast.

Bill licked their lips, their skin prickling in anticipation. Soon, the Eye would be within their grasp. Soon, all of the world would be at their command.

Bill's stomach rumbled. They could hardly wait.

~~0~~0~~0~~

Dipper jolted awake as Bill opened his cage. Blinking sleep from his eyes, limbs heavy as lead, and a dreamy fog still covering his mind, Dipper practically fell into Bill's arms as they pulled him from his cage.

"B- Bill-?" Dipper slurred. He shook his head quickly as he felt Bill's arms encircling him, his cheek pressed close to Bill's chest, right over their heart.

_Thump-thump-thump._

The fact Bill even  _had_ a heartbeat shook Dipper from his exhaustion.

"'Mornin', my little birdie. Have a nice rest?"

Dipper shook his head. "I slept in a freaking  _cage!_ What do  _you_ think?!" he snapped. He wiggled helplessly against Bill. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't break Bill's hold on him.

Bill laughed, however, and Dipper noted with dissatisfaction that Bill seemed happier today than before.

"I'm sorry, my little birdie," Bill purred, "I promise it won't happen again."

Dipper shuddered as Bill caressed his jaw with the tips of their claws. His heart fluttered in his chest, and as he tried to pull back away from that warm hand, Bill dug their claws into Dipper's cheek, pulling him closer.

Dipper gasped as his nose pressed against Bill's. "L- let go of m- me," Dipper hissed, trembles breaking out across his small body. He couldn't pull his eyes away from Bill's-that one inhuman, yet too human eye, and their macabre one as well.

Bill laughed more, the sound splitting from the back of their throat painfully. The high-pitched tone sunk deep into Dipper's marrow, chilling him from the inside-out.

"Now, why would I do that, my little birdie? I thought I've made it clear by now." Bill tucked Dipper close to their chest, and began walking outside. The staccato  _click-click-click_ of their heels reverberated in Dipper's chest.

Bill nipped Dipper's earlobe, pulling a cry from him. "I am  _never_ letting you go. You're  _mine."_ Bill's last words ended with a low, rumbling growl.

The hairs on the back of Dipper's neck stood up on end and a shiver wracked him.

"W- we'll see a- about that," Dipper responded. He could barely get the words past his tightened throat.

Bill didn't reply; they merely continued to chortle as they took Dipper outside.

Dipper squinted against the bright, streaming sunlight. He gasped as he stared at the sky.

The firmament above him bled, a torn cross marring that perfect, blue fabric. The sky around the wound glowed with a pinkish bruise, which stretched out miles on end in all directions.

Dipper's heart thumped in his chest, and his blood in his veins  _thrummed_ as a bad feeling sunk its teeth into him. Panic brewed in the bottom of his lungs, threatening to steal his breath away.

Thirst and hunger fled from Dipper, and he found himself wrapping his arms more securely around Bill, pulling himself closer to them.

Dipper jumped as Bill began rubbing his back. "Something wrong, my sweet?"

Dipper shuddered at the nickname. "What is it with you and weird nicknames?" he grumbled, forcing the bad feelings pulsing at the forefront of his mind back. "I'm fine."

Bill stared at Dipper for half a second. Dipper knew, in that simple look, that Bill didn't believe him, but they didn't press the subject as they carried him across the deck.

"Where are we going?" Dipper couldn't help but ask.

"To eat and drink, of course! We have finally made it to our destination, so some celebrations must be had before we pack and leave."

"Destination?" Dipper cast another peek up at the sky. "Where are we?"

Bill chuckled, pinching Dipper's cheek. "You're adorable."

"Bill. Where are we?"

"Why, just west of weird!"

Dipper tensed. "W- west of-?"

Bill cut him off before Dipper could finish his thought. "We are right above The Nightmare Realm, or, better known as the small town of  _Gravity Falls."_

Dipper gasped. A headache pounded in both his temples, one so powerful that he couldn't help but press his forehead against Bill's lean, speckled shoulder.

Bill tilted their head away from Dipper. "Something wrong?"

Dipper gulped thickly, screwing his eyes shut. Those bad feelings had returned in ten-fold, swamping over him completely, dampening any sense he had rattling in his mind. The world spun around Dipper.

Gravity Falls.  _Gravity Falls._

Why did that name send shockwaves through his body? Why did it instill fear into his heart?

Dipper dug into the deepest recesses of his mind, but found nothing but dust bunnies.

Dipper wiggled hard when he and Bill entered the mess hall, forcing Bill to put him down. Bill kept a close eye on Dipper, however, and a hard hand on his shoulder while the two got needed substance.

Sitting besides Bill, nibbling on a spoonful of porridge, Dipper listened to Bill bark orders at their crew, and in turn, watched their crew scurry about to do as their captain ordered.

"We're not going to be returning to the ship for a long while," Bill explained as they gulped down another mouthful of watery whiskey in a green bottle.

Dipper shot Bill a look. "And you're dragging  _me_ along to- to this weird place?" Dipper asked, hunching his shoulders up. He dropped his spoon into his still half-full bowl. The rolling of his stomach made it impossible to eat any more.

Bill grinned down at Dipper. "Of course I am, my sweet little birdie!"

A shudder of disgust wracked Dipper. "Why? You know I am still trying to get away from you, right?" Dipper narrowed his eyes into slits, and even dared to bare his teeth. "Still trying to  _kill_ you, in fact," he added with a growl.

Half a second after the words spilled forth from his mouth, Dipper regretted them. He was supposed to be trying to get on Bill's  _good_ side-whatever that meant-but here he was leveling threats at them.

Lucky for him, however, Bill tilted their head back and merely chortled. "Oh, you are  _just_ too funny, my little birdie! I could mistake you for a jester of some kind!"

Dipper snarled. Bill laughed more.

"I'm being serious!" Dipper snapped. Fuck getting on Bill's good side.

Bill leaned in close, wrapping a tight arm around Dipper. Their blackened, forked tongue flicked against the shell of Dipper's ear. Dipper squirmed in Bill's iron grip.

"Oh, I am well aware of that," Bill purred. "But that doesn't mean I have to take you seriously. Some  _child_ who has already  _proven_ himself to be unable to kill."

Dipper blinked and gasped softly.

Two pairs of eyes sobbing. Blood dripping down onto the golden-flecked deck, blood seeping through the cracks, blood splattered across his face.

The whine of a sword slicing through flesh. The boom of a bullet tearing through brain matter.

Dipper pressed the heel of his hands against his eyes, willing his tears back. He couldn't bring himself to look back up at Bill.

Bill chuckled again. They gave Dipper another squeeze before pulling him up as they stood.

"Come, my birdie. We are taking our leave now."

~~0~~0~~0~~

Being so high up in the sky, the chilly air nipped playfully at Dipper's exposed skin as Bill dragged him along with them.

Below the odd mountains they stood on, under an old, rickety train track connecting the two mountains, pink clouds, looking as if they had been vomited by a unicorn, swirled in an odd, dome-shaped bubble below, obscuring whatever laid in the valley.

Dipper gulped. His heat raced, sweat trickled down his spine, and the shiver of  _nostalgia_ wracked him yet again.

It wasn't possible for him to have ever came to such a horrible place as  _this._ With the smell of burning flesh and sulfur hanging in the air, as if peeled from his own nightmares.

Yet, if that was the case, why did deja vu weigh him down so heavily? Why did every single step send rippling shockwaves through his nervous system, rattling his skull?

Dipper didn't have an answer. He hesitated, the slight temptation of informing Bill of his feelings clouding him.

Dipper shook his head quickly, dispelling such thoughts. Telling Bill  _anything_ at  _all_ would be a  _terrible_ idea. Berating himself, Dipper trailed after Bill as they reached the peak of the mountain.

The smell remained, as did the chill in the air. The dead grass crunching under the their three sets of feet cut through the whistling of the air.

"So, ser," Pyronica began as they stared down into the valley. "How are we gonna get down to that?"

Dipper's stomach squirmed. It wasn't the height that bothered him, but the revolting, swirling clouds.

Besides Dipper, Bill stood so close to the edge, they looked as if they were about to fall. Their curled, golden hair flapped in the wind behind them like a flag.

"We can't get down there by just flying through that smog," Bill said. "This place is sealed magically…."

Though Dipper couldn't see Bill's distorted face, he knew their eye had narrowed in thought.

"So there must be a magic way to get inside. A proper entrance, per se." Bill peered around. "One second. Pyronica! Make sure my little birdie doesn't try and fly away!"

As Pyronica's hand snapped up to grab Dipper's arm painfully tight, Bill unfolded their magnificent, golden wings, and took off.

Dipper's mouth fell open in a small O as he watched Bill swoop down, streaking down the mountain, transforming into a golden comet as they flew farther and farther away. If only he had some sort of gun. Or a canon. Then, he could blast Bill right out of the sky. They'd be dead. Then, perhaps, he could throw Pyronica down the mountain, and then-

Dipper sighed internally. If only he had any of those things.

"Where are they even going?" Dipper asked Pyronica as Bill streaked out of sight.

"Shut up," Pyronica grumbled. Her sharp nails dug into his skin, carving half-moons into his forearm.

Pyronica dragged Dipper around the peek of the mountain, poking the tip of her boot into small holes, hunting for an entrance to a cavern to wiggle down into. Dipper winced at the shifting of rocks beneath his feet. The mountain was sturdy enough, of course, but the terrible and overwhelming fear of someone falling through a ceiling and into a cave still plagued Dipper's mind.

An hour of utter boredom ticked by, and Dipper couldn't stop glancing at the horizon. Where had Bill gone? Surely they hadn't  _left_ him with Pyronica of all people!

Dipper shook his head, cursing himself. Between Pyronica and Bill, he'd take the former any day. She still held onto his arm, but not as tightly as before, and instead of teasing and prodding at the raw and open wounds of his emotions or hushing him, she primarily ignored him in favor of kicking pebbles down the mountain.

Before Dipper could dig up the courage to ask the knowingly annoying question he knew Pyronica didn't know: " _when is Bill coming back?"_ the crescendoing sound of someone screaming tickled the shell of Dipper's ear.

Pyronica jerked around at the sound too. Behind them, a flash of gold blotted out the sun, and Bill landed with a thick  _thump_ upon the ground.

However, Bill was not alone. In their arms, they grasped onto a squirming, emancipated, old man.

A spike of pain surged through Dipper's head as he peered at the man, his eyes widening.

That man, he was, he was-!

Before Dipper could get a grasp on his thoughts, however, they disappeared like a puff of smoke. Dipper wondered if they had ever been there in the first place, or if the prolonged effects of being around Bill were finally catching up to him, and making him go insane.

The older man refused to look away from Dipper. His wide, watery, and red eyes didn't blink as they rolled around in his skull to pierce him with a stare over his bulbous, warty red nose. He wore nothing but a patchy, floppy brown hat, and equally torn overalls drenched in sweat. Even from where Dipper stood, he could smell the stink that radiated from the man and his long, wiry white beard that nearly touched the ground.

"Look what I found! Some creature poking around near those train tracks," Bill said with a wild grin. "I didn't think any life even resided outside Gravity Falls!"

The man whimpered and snuffled in response, but said nothing.

Dipper couldn't help himself. "Make him stop staring at me." he shuffled closer to Pyronica.

A sick and twisted grin curved Bill's lips. "Of course, my little birdie." Without warning, they started rattling the old man, so much so his eyes rolled up into the back of his skull, and he squirmed and kicked and cried out more within Bill's grasp.

"Oh, stop that!" Bill snapped. They withdrew their ivory sword and pressed it up against the old man's neck. Self-preservation kicked in, and the old man stilled at the threat of getting bitten by the blood-thirsty blade.

"I don't really have time to play games, you disgusting creature, so you're going to tell me the exact information I need, do as I say, or I shall slit your throat and leave you for the beasts to pick apart. Is that clear?" Bill leaned in so close, their scoped eye pressed against the old man's forehead.

The old man whimpered and snuffled in even more distress, but he managed a nod.

Bill grinned broadly. They sheathed their sword. "Perfect. Pyronica! Get over here and leash this disgusting creature."

"Yes, ser!" Pyronica barked, and like the good first mate she was, trotted over to Bill's side to do as they commanded.

On the way, she dropped Dipper back off at Bill's side. The old man squirmed, glancing up at Dipper nervously before darting his eyes away, terrified of being caught looking again.

"Now, old man," Bill sneered. "Gravity Falls. You're from there, aren't you? Or you  _were._ You got out just  _in time,_  didn't you?"

The man whimpered again, but nodded slowly after taking several seconds to register Bill's question.

"Good. That means you know how to get inside, don't you? Get inside Gravity Falls."

Finally, the old man spoke. "Get inside? Get inside? Gravity Falls?" Strange, jarring laughter spilled from his lips. "Get inside, get inside! Yip!" Tears welled in his eyes, but they didn't fall.

An annoyed sound escaped Bill. Without warning, they lifted the old man back up, carrying him by one of his overall straps, and dangled him over the edge of the mountain.

A loud yelp tore through the old man's throat. "Lemme down! Lemme down!"

"You really want me to do that right now?" Bill asked with a terrible smile. They slipped his overalls from their fingers, carrying the man by a single index finger.

Tears finally broke through the old man's eyes, and they poured down his wrinkled cheeks.

Dipper pressed a hand against his face, shaking his head, but unable to turn away. "S- stop it!" Dipper suddenly found himself shouting. He ran to Bill's side. "Stop!"

Bill unfurled a wing, keeping Dipper back. "Can't play now, birdie. Now, creature." Bill's mismatched eyes bore into the old man's. "You know where the entrance to Gravity Falls lies. Tell me, or I'll not only kill you, but our small friend here."

Ice water poured into Dipper's veins at the threat. His heart swelled into his throat.

Bill was bluffing. They had to be. There was no way they  _weren't._

Dipper stared up at Bill, and a completely new emotion overtook him.

Hope.

Bill was bluffing.

The old man, of course, could not tell that Bill was bluffing. His eyes bulged out of his skull, his mouth opening into a small O of terror. His eyes, once again, flicked over to Dipper, and stayed on him.

"I- I-" the old man babbled.

"Well? Bill asked with a smirk. "Will you cooperate. No one has to get hurt. Don't make me hurt you or this poor child, now."

"Yes. Entrance. North. Other side of the tracks. Deep within the heart."

Bill rolled their eyes. "Of course. More riddles." They pulled the old man back, however. They dropped him hard on the ground, and Dipper found himself crouching down to make sure the old man was okay as Bill turned, keeping their back to him as they stared at the other mountain.

"Across the tracks, huh? Then we have no time to waste. Pyronica! Tie these two up together! We are heading out."

~~0~~0~~0~~

Dipper gulped, shivering as he was forced to stare up at the firmament.

As soon as he had been tied to the old man, the old man stood up straighter, so Dipper's heels didn't drag on the ground, and walked with him as if he were a mere backpack rather than an actual person.

Dipper couldn't help but curse inside his mind. If only he weren't tied to the old man, he would have thrown himself off the tracks.

Or well, perhaps not. His previous thoughts from earlier resurfaced. Getting on Bill Cipher's  _good side,_ whatever that was, in order to do two things: kill them, then himself.

Though, the more Dipper thought, the less appealing death seemed to him. Before, he had been willing to toss himself from open skies to join his sister and family. He would've  _done_ anything to get away from the horrid Captain Bill Cipher.

But now, here, above Gravity Falls, with his heart still pounding and his hands more clammy than usual, Dipper couldn't help but reevaluate himself.

Death, though appealing, wasn't what he wanted. In fact, the more Dipper thought, the more he realized that death never appealed to him at all. No, what appealed him to was losing the hole that had been punched into his still beating heart.

And if his heart didn't beat, then he would no longer feel that hole there, now would he?

Even now, the hole still ached, but beyond that ache, was the need to kill Bill Cipher.

Kill Bill Cipher. Kill himself. Those had been his goals. But now, above Gravity Falls, on the back of a strange man who gave him stranger looks, Dipper realized he had a second task to accomplish before giving himself to gravity and splattering upon the ground. Something he did not particularly want to do, but something he had to do.

He had to solve the mystery on why his heart pounded while staring at Gravity Falls, determine why that name, that dumb  _name-_ Gravity Falls-meant so much to him.

He had to solve the mystery of Gravity Falls, whatever mystery that was, kill Bill Cipher, and then himself.

Only after those two tasks could he finally be free to see his family once more.

Beneath him, the old man stumbled to a stop behind Bill.

Cranking his head around, Dipper peered over the brim of the old man's hat. He couldn't get a clear view of Bill, but Dipper could still make out them leaning their head into some hanging moss, staring into what was the cave the track led into.

"The track just… stops. How pointless," Bill said. They disappeared behind the curtain of dried moss.

Beneath Dipper, the old man shivered. When Dipper pricked his ears, he could hear the old man whimpering softly yet again.

"Wait are ya waiting for?" Pyronica suddenly snapped from behind them. "Start walking!"

The old man startled at her yell, and hurried to follow Bill.

Dipper's eyesight was swallowed by darkness. He couldn't make out a single thing once they entered the cave. But his ears still picked up on Bill muttering about something or another, the sound of their heels clicking against the hard rock, and the increased vibration against his back as the old man's shudders grew more violent.

"Can I  _please_ be untied now?" Dipper barked into the blanket of silence that had descended upon their entire group.

Bill must have come to a grinding halt; the old man yelped in pain, rubbing his nose, as if he bumped hard against something. Or, more likely, some _one._

"Why, of course you can, my sweet little birdie!" Bill purred from the front. They squeezed past the old man-Dipper wondered when the cave had constricted around them-and easily untied Dipper from the old man's back.

Bill must have been able to see in the dark. It was the only explanation.

Dipper's feet never met the sweet relief of solid ground. As Dipper slid downward, Bill pulled him up into their arms, crushing him against their chest.

Dipper tried to squirm, but of course, Bill was much stronger than him, and kept him in place with an iron grip.

"Let me go!" Dipper gasped. His voice echoed around him just a tad.

"I don't think so! Don't want to give you any chances to get into funny business. Unless, of course, it's  _my_ type of funny business." Dipper's eyes were still adjusting to the dark, but he didn't have to see Bill's face to know that they were wiggling their eyebrows.

"You're disgusting!" Dipper cried out, leaning as far away from Bill as he could possibly get.

Bill merely cackled, and slid back up to the front of their group. Keeping Dipper crushed against their chest, the entire group continued down the cave.

Dipper narrowed his eyes. Ignoring the warmth Bill seeped into him and their rapidly beating heart in his ear, he tried to peer through the thick shroud of darkness.

Besides vague shapes of stalagmites and stalactites, Dipper couldn't make out much. From what he gathered, there wasn't even any pathways jutting off from the one they were on.

And like Bill had said long ago, no train track trailed beneath their feet.

Still, though Dipper felt as if they were moving through molasses, he could detect some changes. The cave sloped downward, and the farther they traveled, the cooler the air got. Wetness in the air filled Dipper's mouth and lungs, brushing up against his the heated skin of his forearms, and making the peach fuzz dusting his skin stand on end.

"So, old man. You said the entrance to Gravity Falls was this way," Bill growled. Their words reverberated around them. "We have been walking for nearly an  _hour_ now." Without warning, Bill whipped around on their heel.

Dipper squeaked, squeezing Bill tight, afraid the captain would drop him.

Bill, too focused on the old man, paid no heed to Dipper pressing into their chest. "Well?" Keeping their arm under Dipper, Bill rose a single hand, and their fingers caught alight with cerulean flames. The flames curled and licked at Bill's skin, already hungry for  _human_ blood and flesh to boil and burn.

The old man squeaked and tried to back away, only to run into Pyronica. Pyronica grabbed his wrists and twisted them around his body, pinning him into place.

"Well? You wouldn't want me to make your vision permanently go out, would you?" Bill's hand hovered dangerously close to the old man's eyes.

Tears welled up in the old man's eyes, and he shook his head. "N- no! No, no! We're- we're almost there. Almost there! Yippie, almost there! Just another ten minutes! Just another ten!"

Bill tilted their head to the side, regarding the old man with a cool and calculated look. Finally, after several long seconds, they dropped their hand, and the fire got snuffed out.

"Very well. But if in ten minutes we are not yet at Gravity Falls, I  _will_ kill you."

The old man nodded madly, and Bill turned back around, and continued stalking forward.

Dipper wanted to open his mouth, to ask Bill to put him down  _yet again,_ but instead he pressed his lips into a line, and said nothing at all.

His words would be pointless. Besides, his time was better spent thinking of a way to getting both himself and the old man away from both Bill and Pyronica and to somewhere safe.

Though, Dipper couldn't help but feel that  _safe_ was a relative term considering they were trapped between some mysterious town and Bill's ship.

Still, considering it was Bill of all people, Dipper couldn't help but feel the unknown was safer than Bill's ship.

Dipper's mind yielded no ideas in ten minutes. However, Bill's threat didn't come to pass either.

The cave around them began widening, opening up, and ducking under a low ceiling, the four ducked into a small clearing within the cave.

What could've been pathways to the outside had been blocked long ago by rubble. Beyond rocks, puddles of water, and more hanging moss, nothing else struck Dipper as interesting.

However, the shimmering blue light bouncing off the few black puddles in the cave did draw Dipper's eye to the back wall.

Across the clearing of the cave, carved into the largest pile of rubble, was an odd symbol. Two circles laid in one another. Around the inner circle's circumference were numerous symbols-a fish, a bag of ice, a question mark, glasses, a stitched heart, a shooting star, a llama, a six-fingered hand print, a star with an eye in the center, and lastly, a pine tree.

In the very center of the circle was nothing at all. Lines scored into the rock met in the center, right where…  _something_ should've been.

Dipper didn't dwell on that fact for long. All the words in his head died as his eyes locked onto the symbol of the pine tree.

His heart raced.

Time, space, sensation, everything slipped away from Dipper. He didn't even blink as he continued to stare.

Dipper, too caught up in his own head, missed everything Bill Cipher said.

"So," Bill said. "This is the entrance to Gravity Falls?" Bill turned to the old man, but his eyes were screwed shut. He merely nodded.

Bill growled. They whipped their head back around to glare at the symbol. "Of course  _this_ was how it was sealed. Of course. Damn zodiac. Haunts me wherever I go."

Pyronica stepped up besides Bill. She rose her fists, and both caught alight with magenta flames. "I can destroy it, se-"

"No, you can't," Bill snarled. They placed Dipper down without thought and whipped around at the old man. Bill grasped his emancipated wrists, hauling him up into the air. "Open your fucking eyes!" they roared. "You can open it, can't you? You're from the town! You can get out! Open your fu-"

"Ser!" Pyronica gasped. She grasped ahold of Bill's shoulder, pointing behind them wildly. "The child!"

Bill whipped around, a snarl curling their lips as they bared their fangs. Pure shock wrote its way across their face, however, as they watched Dipper pad up to the symbol, his hand outstretched.

He was in a trance. Bill didn't have to see Dipper's expression to know that.

"Birdie?!" Bill cried out, a bit shocked. They took off into a run after Dipper, preparing to scoop him up back into their arms, get him away from the symbol that would burn him,  _destroy him,_ if he got too close.

But Bill was a fraction too slow.

Their arm wrapped around Dipper's waist just as the tips of Dipper's outstretched fingers brushed against the pine tree symbol on the zodiac. Underneath Dipper's mass of curly brown hair, the birthmark he always kept hidden glowed.

Then, at once, magic buzzed in the air, and a bright, iridescent light blinded the entire room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, this much longer than average chapter makes up for how short the last chapter was! And yes, I did upload this really fast! I am now about 1 1/2 chapters ahead of what's being posted, which means that chapter 10 should be posted very soon as well!
> 
> I am trying to finish this fic by Christmas time! I don't know if I can actually make that, but we'll see! I have about 3 1/2 chapters left to write, so the possibility is quite real.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading, as always. I don't get a lot of comments/kudos on this fic, but if you have left any at all I really appreciate it. Sorry if I don't always respond to comments, by the way! Sometimes, I just don't have much to say!


	10. Εφιάλτης

Bill blinked madly, groaning in pain as black spots danced in their eye. The iridescent, cerulean light had singed their eyeball and burned away the previous panicked thoughts clogging their brain.

Yanking Dipper back to their side, the young boy collided into their side painfully. Bill grunted, wrapping an arm around Dipper as he nearly fell onto the ground, his dazed eyes rolling around in his head like pair of dice.

A gasp of "ser!" from Pyronica had Bill's head whipping around, their hat nearly falling off their head as they stared forward.

Their mouth fell open.

The gateway to Gravity Falls, the town blanketed by The Nightmare Realm, had opened up. Orange-red light crept inside the cave the four still stood inside, washing the ground in a color similar to diluted blood.

Bill stared outside, to the ashes of carnage in the distance, toward a grand pyramid floating to the sky in the horizon, and then back down at Dipper, the young boy they had quite literally plucked from the sky.

Dipper had touched the zodiac. He had touched the pine tree on the zodiac, to be exact.

A twinge of pain echoed in Bill's head. Memories that had been buried inside them, underneath insanity and the twisting confusion of space time, crumbled, spilling out, leaking into his thoughts like sewage.

They had thought this boy had been special, had been drawn to him. Those determined, angry eyes had lit a fire in the cavity where their heart should've been.

Once Bill's memories started breaking that cursed dam, there was no escape. Those buried moments flooded Bill, soaking them to the bone with indignation and even a little admiration.

"Oh, Dipper Pines. Pine Tree," Bill murmured, scooping the boy up into their arms. A predatory, wolfish grin stretched their cheeks. Bill dragged their claws across one of Dipper's soft, round cheeks, hard enough to cut only the first layer of his skin. "You are the most curious boy I have ever had the displeasure of running into  _multiple times."_

From behind Bill, Pyronica hesitated. "Ser? Are we going to move out, or-?"

Bill threw a shining glance behind themselves. "Of course we are!" they cawed. "Just had to grab my little Pine Tree here."

Pyronica tilted her head to the side, a little confusion dancing in her eye. "Pine Tree?" she questioned, but didn't push the matter. Already, Bill could see realization dawn on her two as her own buried memories starting popping up like mud bubbles.

Besides Pyronica, the old man gulped, total terror flooding his face. However, he didn't run. Staring at Dipper, he stayed in place. If it weren't for his shuddering, he would've been still as a statue.

Bill grunted. "Make sure McGucket there doesn't escape us."

McGucket gulped, his eyes widening at the realization that Bill Cipher knew his name.

Pyronica nodded once, then proceeded to tie McGucket up again. This time, she bound his hands, keeping a string leashed to him that she held tight in a fist.

"Ready, ser!"

Bill grinned. "Then let's head off."

~~0~~0~~0~~

Dipper groaned under his breath. His head pounded and his entire body hung limp like a dead fish. His body rocked back and forth, but this rocking sensation didn't match the same one on captain Bill Cipher's ship. Whatever was supporting him wasn't the cold metal of his bird cage, either.

Parting his chapped lips, Dipper sucked in a mouthful of arid air. He coughed as ash and dust coated his esophagus. Cracking his eyes open, Dipper stared up at the smooth, tanned jawline of Bill Cipher. They had brushed their hair to cascade down their opposite shoulder, giving Dipper a full view of their smooth skin and perfect profile.

They were beautiful, but deadly. Dipper quickly averted his gaze and instead squirmed in their grasp.

"Ah, finally awake, I see," Bill said, now grinning down at Dipper. As Dipper dared to peek up at that poisonous eye, he couldn't help but hesitate for a second.

Something was different about that eye. In fact, something was different about Bill. How they carried him. How they stared at them. Something more than just dark amusement danced behind their features, but for the life of him, Dipper couldn't figure out  _what_ exactly that was.

"Put me down," Dipper demanded right away. He looked away again.

Though Dipper wasn't peering up at Bill any longer, he knew a frown marred Bill's face.

"Why should I?" Bill asked.

"So I can kill you of course," Dipper fired back. He glared back up at Bill, his brows furrowed angrily.

That strange expression Bill wore shattered. A booming laugh escaped them, and then, much to Dipper's shock, Bill placed him carefully onto the ground.

Dead grass crunched under Dipper's feet. Though Bill's heavy hand still clasped his shoulder, Dipper couldn't help but feel the world whirl around him at what just happened.

Bill had… listened to him? But why?

Dipper shook his head. Bill was an enigma and completely and utterly insane. Insanity had no logic, reasoning, nor patterning behind it.

Still, Dipper couldn't help but wonder in the back of his mind.

"So, ya finally decided to wake up, did'ja?" Pyronica said from Dipper's left. She rolled her eye. "Captain Cipher has been carrying you around for half a day now!"

Dipper's eyes widened, his mouth falling open in a small O. "Half a day?!" he cried out. He jerked his head up to look toward where the sun was in the sky, but froze.

The sun wasn't in the sky. Neither was the moon, or any stars either. Nothing but swirling, puke-colored clouds. Greens, pinks, and murky browns all swirled together in a disgusting display. Fiery strikes of lightning would, at times, arc across the sky, but they told nothing of the day's current time either.

Odd pinkish bubbles also floating around, some high in the sky, others nearly touching the pine trees that crowded around them. Dipper didn't know how he knew, but something told him that touching those bubbles or even getting near them would be a most unwise decision.

"Indeed. Half a day," Bill said with a grin. "But no worries, my little Pine Tree; I don't mind carrying you like this."

Before Dipper could respond, Bill crouched down, and dragged their tongue up Dipper's cheek.

"Ew!" Dipper gasped.

Bill smirked and slid their hand down into Dipper's, entwining their fingers. He squeezed Dipper's hand so hard, red crept across his skin.

Dipper muffled his small noise of pain and glared up at Bill.

"Don't worry, I won't let any big bad weirdness bubbles get to ya!" Bill said with a smirk and a slow blink from their human eye-the best of a wink they could do.

Scowling, Dipper shook his head and rolled his eyes. "You're so weird." But he didn't try to pull his hand from Bill's. Not yet, of course.

His previous plan echoed in his mind. Get on captain Bill Cipher's  _good_ side. Whatever  _that_ meant.

Eyeing the captain, disgust curled up in the pit of Dipper's stomach, and festered. He could think of a million and one other things he'd rather do.

Swallowing the bile rising in his throat, Dipper pushed his repulsion away, and instead, continued to hold Bill's hand, even squeezing back.

Bill's brows rose in mild surprise, his grin falling a fraction before returning as a full-force, blinding beam.

Then Bill released his hand ever so carefully, so they were merely holding hands instead of Bill holding him hostage.

Dipper pressed his lips into a thin line to stop himself from grinning.  _You idiot._

"Ser, we should keep moving. When it gets dark, we need to be hidden well," Pyronica said. She yanked the old man closer, her top lip curling in annoyance and disgust.

Bill tore their eyes from Dipper. "Yes, you're right. We shall keep moving." Bill gently pulled Dipper along as they began marching forward once more.

Dipper stared around. They weren't in some forest, as he had previously thought. In fact, they were now walking along a cracked, mostly abandoned road. A few vehicles, with rust already tainting their metal, laid on their sides like dead bugs, crashed and torn apart.

Most likely, torn apart by whatever they were going to avoid at night.

"So this is- this is Gravity Falls?" Dipper asked, continuously peering around. In the distance, he could see the remains of a town, black against the putrid horizon.

Bill hummed under their breath, most likely debating on what they were going to tell him.

Dipper's heart pounded in the base of his throat, where it was lodged.

"Indeed it is, Pine Tree. Have you ever been here?" The question was innocent enough, but it send another flaming spark of excruciating pain through Dipper's head. Dipper blinked black spots out of his eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't ignore the migraine that suddenly swamped him.

"I- I- no?" It came out as a question.

"I see. Well, welcome to Gravity Falls, then," Bill said with a cackle. "Quite the beautiful place, isn't it?"

"What- what happened here?" Dipper managed to say through his pounding head. He cradled his forehead in his hand.

It wasn't Bill that answered Dipper's question, but the old man trailing behind him.

"The weirdness!" he barked, his eyes bulging from his head once more. "It corrupted us all! The Nightmare-"

A sharp kick to the old man's shins by Pyronica sent him tumbling to the ground.

"That's quite enough out of you!" Pyronica snarled.

Bill guffawed. "Thank you! Pine Tree, what happened here doesn't matter."

"Then why are we here anyways?"

"That's on a need-to-know basis."

Dipper narrowed his eyes, but instead glared forward instead of at Bill. Bill and Pyronica had been discussing Gravity Falls on the ship. They had said something about the Nightmare Realm and how it had  _corrupted_ Gravity Falls.

Oh, and something, an eye (Bill's eye?), that was at the heart of the Nightmare Realm, where something else, something called the Fearymid, was.

Dipper pressed his lips into a thin line, recalling the swirling dome of clouds he had seen when staring down at Gravity Falls.

Something called the Nightmare Realm destroyed Gravity Falls. For one reason or another, Gravity Falls had been wiped off of maps, considering how hard it was for Bill to get a map to lead directly to Gravity Falls, and Bill needed his eye, which laid in the heart of the Nightmare Realm, or Gravity Falls, which was inside some box most likely known as the Fearymid.

Dipper couldn't help but grin. He had figured it out!

Staring along the horizon, Dipper could see high above, a pyramid floating.

That had to be the Fearymid.

Dipper's triumphant smile didn't stay for long. The more he dwelled on Gravity Falls and the Nightmare Realm, the worse his migraine became.

Dipper licked his dried lips. His stomach gurgled as they trailed into a scattered forest of ruined and collapsed buildings.

They appeared to be nothing more than previous little roadside stores. Still, peering into empty window panes, his eyes tracing out trashed registers and dusty floors, Dipper's heart sunk into his stomach. Tears threatened to well up in his eyes and fall down his cheeks.

But  _why?_

Dipper gasped, nearly stumbling and collapsing to his feet as his ankles knocked together painfully.

A sudden swamp of sadness consumed Dipper. He swore his heart was tearing itself into two.

People had once lived here. People and families with pets. Now, everything laid in ruin. Though Dipper didn't see any bodies nor bones gathering dust and mites like the skeletal buildings were, that didn't mean people didn't  _die_ during- during-

From the recesses of his mind, a word bubbled forth.  _Weirdmageddon._

Dipper glanced up at Bill. Before he could ask if they could possibly stop and rest for the night (though, did Gravity Falls even have a night now?), a groan from Pyronica echoed behind both Bill and Dipper, gathering their attention.

"Can we please stop?" Pyronica huffed. "I've been dragging this old man for the past  _hour_ and I'm getting sick of it! Let's just stop for the night."

Indeed, her hands had puffed up and flushed red with the lack of circulation as the rope she had leashed onto the old man cut into her wrists. Behind her, the rope strained as the old man sat on his ass.

Dipper stared on in disbelief. In the past hour, the old man had been dragged across his ass in some topsy-turvy town.

Bill groaned. They marched over toward the old man. Grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, they hauled him up to his feet as he yowled in protest.

"McGucket, McGucket, you're not going to be the one to stop me-" Bill snarled. Before they could finish their threat, however, a small whimper of pain emanated from Dipper.

"Pine Tree?" Bill asked, their previous anger flushing from their system as they whirled around.

Dipper cradled his head in his hand. He peered up at Bill with huge eyes. "I- I agree with Pyronica. Please, can we just… stop for a while?"

Bill stared hard at Dipper for several seconds. They glanced over his head at the Fearymid that floated in the distance. Though they still were several miles off from it, and still had to pass through the ruined heart of Gravity Falls to get to it, they were much closer than they had been for sure.

With a snort and a shake of his head, Bill dropped McGucket.

"Very well. We shall take shelter over there." They jutted their chin out toward one of the many ruined roadside shops.

The four gathered inside one of the buildings. Peering around, Dipper deduced that it had once been a convenience store. The doors of the fridges that had once, most likely, housed ice had been ripped off. Most the shelves laid upon their sides. Nothing but trash littered the ground, along with dust and leaves.

Pushing the shelves around to create a small pit in the center of the convenience store, the four huddled onto the ground.

With a flick of her now-healed wrist, Pyronica summoned a magenta flame to work as a campfire. The pinkish dim light the flames tossed upon the walls would keep them moderately well hidden while also warm.

Though, as Dipper rubbed his arms, he realized he really wasn't all that cold to begin with. As depressing as the landscape around him was, no chills floated in the air.

"That- that pyramid thing. In the sky. Is that where we're going?" Dipper asked Bill. It pained him to sit so close to the captain, their legs brushing, but he swallowed his bile and did so anyways.

Bill seemed delighted at the small touches, however. Their wings puffed up and twitched. "Indeed." They paused for half a second. "It's called the Fearymid. It's the center of Gravity Falls."

Dipper bit the inside of his cheek, shock creeping along the inner walls. Could he possibly get  _more_ information from the notorious captain Bill Cipher, the golden devil themselves?

"Why? What's so special about the Fearymid?"

Bill narrowed their eyes down at Dipper, as if assessing him. Dipper squirmed under their gaze.

"Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head over, Pine Tree," Bill said.

Dipper tried to curse Bill in his head, but another little spark of pain disrupted his thoughts.

"You've started calling me that suddenly. Pine Tree. Why?" Dipper asked instead. "And- and why did I black out in the cave? What happened?"

"Nothing all that important, Pine Tree. Really. I call you Pine Tree 'cause it's fitting! You're a pine tree!"

"That makes no sense!"

Bill reached up and with the tips of his claws, traced Dipper's birthmark under his mess of curls.

Dipper stiffened, his mouth falling open in shock. How did Bill-?

"Sleep, Pine Tree," Bill purred.

And before Dipper could even try and protest, he slumped into Bill's lap, and fell into a deep slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. 11th chapter is written and shall be edited/posted as soon as I finish the 12th chapter. Also I spliced together a better cover for Icarus, but it's not on here, it's on ffnet and on my tumblr so yeah. 
> 
> We are. Really reaching the end here and I am getting quite excited about that fact! I have 3 more chapters to write, and one said chapter is an epilogue! How fun~
> 
> Anyways! Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


	11. Πτώση

Dipper did not dream. He did not dream while rocking back in forth in his cage upon the golden devil's ship, and nor did he ever really dream much back on his own vessel with his family.

For as long as Dipper could remember, which he was coming to realize wasn't that long, he had never been a dreamer. Not like Mabel, at least.

But curled partially on Bill Cipher's lap, Dipper found himself floating in the strange waters of a dream. Fog atop the sloshing waves of his thoughts muddled sounds and images swirling around Dipper, but despite the thick clouds, Dipper could see color just beyond.

Not just color, but truth as well.

At first, there was merely red. Blood in the ocean. Spreading out, not corrupting, but hiding. Hiding truth, blinding people from terrors leaking from another world.

_The Blind Eye Society. Erasing memories. Monsters, creeping into the normal world, wreaking havoc, terrifying many._

_What to do in a situation like this? What to do when a Beast rises and begins whispering magic words to a too smart and too powerful man?_

But even the thickest blood dispearses in water. Eyeballs floated, riding the waves in their lost eyelid boats. The sea water stained their whites red. Seeing, searching, constantly looking for truth just to erase the  _other_ truth.

_He wasn't alone. There were others with him. Question Mark. Ice. Shooting Star. A gun was found, but it wasn't a gun. Identities were revealed. Including the identity of another. Glasses._

_But Glasses had been cracked a long time ago._

The eyeballs disappeared along the horizon, but their disappearance said nothing. They still lingered, they still searched, but now, only to reveal the truth, not to obscure it.

They couldn't afford hiding the truth. They didn't afford hiding the truth.

Terrible secrets had been uncovered. A different world, a realm of monsters and noxious magic. Ruling this noxious world, grinning as their beasts poisoned Gravity Falls, was a demon of gold, with a grinning eye and blue fire instead of living blood.

Begging. They had begged. He had begged. But the demon had merely grinned and pointed a claw to continue to direct their horrid monsters.

The fumes of  _that_ world, the poison that became to be known as  _the Weirdness,_ sickened almost everyone.

Within the ocean, red algae floated to the surface, reminding Dipper of blood clots. Names woven into the algae shone in Dipper's mind, as clear as day. Names of those who had been poisoned by the weirdness.

Manly Dan, who told his still clean daughter to run, which she did.

Toby Determined, who people didn't even realize was gone until he had fallen.

Sheriff Blubs, who had been sobbed over by Deputy Durland.

And then, so many others.

Tyler Cutebiker.

Tambry.

Lazy Susan.

People dropping like flies, corrupted and deformed from the Weirdness.

When brokering a deal hadn't worked, they had begged the demon. When even that didn't work, they had turned to violence.

A plan had been formed, a math formula uncovered by a man known as Six-Fingers. The zodiac had been written to seal the demon of gold, the golden devil, back into their own world.

He had been there, watching the white paint dry on concrete. Dipper had stood on the pine tree symbol, along with everyone else on their other symbols, and they had recited a chant to beat back the golden devil.

They had chanted, prayed, did everything they could. But the zodiac failed.

He, Pine Tree, no,  _Dipper,_ had fallen. For he, too, had been poisoned by the Weirdness.

Chaos reigned. Armageddon, no,  _Weirdmageddon,_ reigned.

After failing peace and war, there had been only one thing left to attempt: flee. Unfortunately, another being had been summoned. A cult, hiding with the shadow of the Society of the Blind Eye, finally had their own secret plans come to fruition.

This cult, a Cult of Time, had come together to summon a creature more powerful than the golden devil themself, to beat back that demon of gold, and to restore Gravity Falls.

But not even their god, the Time Baby, could defeat such a monstrous creature. Concerned with the spread of the Weirdness, fearful of the golden devil corrupting the entire world, the Time Baby could only do one thing before disappearing back into hyperspace-prepping a time lock to entrap Gravity Falls once the Weirdness spread too much.

The time lock would stop the weirdness, stop time from moving within Gravity Falls.

Desperate to escape not only the golden devil, but the freezing over of time itself, a man he-Dipper Pines-had looked up to took the not-gun.

Dipper, still floating in his strange, roiling, ocean of memories, stared up at the sun. It blazed overhead, clearing the fog only a little. But this sun was no yellow or gold. It burned a bright blue.

The same blue that he had last remembered seeing before awaking on his parent's vessel, rocking back and forth in the sky as they traded goods.

The same blue that had wiped his memories clean, along with the memories of his sister, both his parents, and his great uncles.

Six-Fingers-Great Uncle Ford-had lastly turned the gun onto himself as they fled.

As they left, Gravity Falls had fallen, and the time lock froze everything.

~~0~~0~~0~~

Dipper awoke with a jolt, gasping in soft pain. An arm that had been draped over his shoulders slid down his back, and Dipper shuddered in disgust as he carefully picked himself off of Bill's lap.

Captain Bill Cipher, the golden devil, the demon of gold, slept soundly, their nose whistling as they breathed.

Blinking sleep out of his eyes, Dipper winced as the pinkish fire burned his retinas. Rubbing both eyes with his fists, he glanced at a sleeping Pyronica to his right before startling as he caught Glasses, no,  _Old Man McGucket,_ still awake and staring at him from his peripherals.

Dipper parted his chap lips, but no sound leaked from his dry mouth. Instead, he stared at McGucket with his eyes as wide as the hidden moon, recognition pooling and swirling within both, leading McGucket's own eyes to water.

"You 'member," he rasped in a whisper. "You ' _member."_

Dipper gave the tiniest nods, tears overflowing his cheeks. The emptiness of missing his entire family gaped, the edges rubbed raw at the fact that he didn't just lose his entire family, but his entire  _town_ less than a lifetime ago.

Bill Cipher had been trying to break into Gravity Falls for years, where the fabric between dimensions ran the thinnest. They had left cracks in that fabric of spacetime, and the Weirdness of their own dimension flooded Gravity Falls, poisoning everyone. At first, only the Society of the Blind Eye knew of these happenings as they tried to cover up the conspiracies plaguing the town. But destruction couldn't be stalled for long, and the truth eventually overflowed Gravity Falls.

They had tried to broker deals, beg, and lastly even fight against the onslaught of monsters, but it had been no use.

Bill Cipher was going to win.

Dipper-with his friends and family, of course-had etched the zodiac formula created by his Great Uncle Ford to stop Bill Cipher once and for all. But the Weirdness poisoned  _him._

Dipper gulped thickly. Even now, he could feel it slithering inside of him, a trail of fire licking his insides. Instead of burning him up from the inside out, it had settled, melding into one with him, fading out.

Dipper brushed his birthmark, which had  _glowed._

He was no longer normal. He was Weird.

The Weirdness had poisoned him. The zodiac couldn't be used to destroy Weirdmaggedon and Bill, only to lock them inside Gravity Falls for eternity.

Though, looking back, pressing a hand against his chest, Dipper figured that now that the poison of the Weirdness had melded with him, the zodiac would work  _now,_ just as it had when he opened the seal to Gravity Falls.

The irony of it all, of being one of the three of the zodiac left, nearly broke Dipper into bitter laughs. Instead, he swallowed each and every bubbling chuckle.

Dipper stared up at the still-resting Bill yet again. Seemed they couldn't even get that right, however.

As they all had decided to flee the town, another creature had been summoning, of might and power. Another deity to combat Bill Cipher-Time Baby.

But not even Time Baby could defeat that likes of Bill Cipher on his own turf, and thus, all Time Baby could do was send them spiraling through spacetime, briefly banishing them from Gravity Falls, giving Dipper and his family just enough time to escape, then seal Gravity Falls.

Tears had ran down his cheeks that day as he had stepped off that blue pine tree symbol. McGucket had stood besides Mabel, and had his own tears in his eyes.

Dipper had thought they could go on a grand quest after that-he and all the others who wore the marks of the zodiac, to find Bill Cipher, lost in time as they were, and destroy them for good.

But his parents had been scared. McGucket had been scared. McGucket had the memory gun, a not-gun that could erase people's memories.

And with tears in his eyes, he had turned the gun onto all of the, erasing his memory, his uncles, his sister's, almost everyone who had been standing there.

Except that of Wendy Corduroy, who had somehow slipped away in the confusion.

Memories whirled around him. As he blinked wetness out of his eyes, the relief and  _joy_ of getting his memories back could not drown out the sudden bubble of anger that swelled. With a curl of his lip, a snarl rumbling in the back of his throat, Dipper lunged at McGucket.

McGucket let out a loud yelp as Dipper suddenly tackled him to the ground and squeezed his neck tight between his palms. Small grunts of pain escaped Dipper as McGucket battered at Dipper's torso with his feet, but Dipper held on tight. McGucket's pale face flushed red, and his already red nose grew redder by the second as Dipper squeezed air from his lungs.

"You!" Dipper roared, slamming the back of McGucket's head into the tile. "You, you-!" Dipper couldn't talk past the anger inside him.

McGucket had stolen his memories. Out of fear. Out of insanity. Out of  _something._ He was the one to steal his memories, his family's memories. If they had all still remembered Bill-remembered Bill for what they truly are-they could've been more diligent of them for when they returned to time.

"It's  _your_ fault!" Dipper found himself snarling. He didn't care that Pyronica had jerked awake at the sound of his voice. He didn't care that Bill's voice rang out behind him in alarm, asking what was going on.

Dipper squeezed McGucket's neck even tighter. His stomach ached with the bruises now blooming across his skin, but Dipper couldn't find it in himself to care.

Red filled his vision, along with several black spots. No thought stuck on the inside of his skull long enough for Dipper to process it.

Then, from the tops of his eyes, Dipper saw gold. Golden hair in natural curls swinging back and forth. Warm hands, with each dainty finger spiked with a sharp nail, encircled his hips, holding firm rather than tight.

Bill's lips pressed against the underside of Dipper's ear, their words kissing along Dipper's flushed skin.

"Good job, Pine Tree," Bill purred. "Now. Finish him off. We don't need him anymore. All  _I_ need is you. Just a little tighter."

Dipper panted hard, one mad eye rolling around in his skull to pin onto Bill.

Bill grinned that massive grin-like a wolf hungry for blood.

Then, Dipper let go, and collapsed onto his haunches panting.

"No!" Bill snarled. They cuffed Dipper hard on the head, then grabbed Dipper's wrist  _hard._

"Don't you wanna kill me, kid? How will you ever manage to kill me if you can't kill a creature like the likes of  _him?"_ Bill peeled their lips back.

Dipper blinked hard, struggling to focus on Bill.

McGucket, seeing an opening, coughed as he scrambled away, but Pyronica lept to capture him. Wrenching his arms back around his back, Pyronica sat McGucket on his knees, waiting for his execution.

"Maybe you just need a little help," Bill purred. "That's it. You never forget your first, Pine Tree! It's like eating peanuts you know! The good ones covered in chocolate! Once you got a taste, you need another and another." As Bill babbled, they unsheathed their sword, and thrust it into Dipper's empty hand. Bill closed their own fist around Dipper's to force him to carry it.

The sword felt off, unbalanced, in Dipper's hand. Too heavy near the hilt and too light along the blade. He struggled to even carry it as Bill dragged Dipper forward.

"Wait, no. I- I don't want to actually  _kill_ him, I…. He did terrible things but- but he's not a monster! Not a monster like you!" Dipper yelled, but it was no use.

Bill wrapped their other arm around Dipper's waist, hugging him from behind. "Don't worry, my little Pine Tree. My birdie. It'll be fun! A couples' bonding activity, if you will." They licked the shell of Dipper's ear. Shivers of disgust wracked his body.

"Think of it as if making love. We're making love together now, Pine Tree. And this is our bed." Bill forced Dipper to gesture to McGucket with the sword.

"No!" Dipper cried out again. Like always, Bill's grip was like iron, and Dipper was helpless to stop the sword from resting on McGucket's shoulder, the sharpened blade pressed against his throat.

Dipper stared at the glimmering sword, at McGucket's Adam's apple as it bobbed up and down in fear. His entire body trembled, and he had his eyes screwed shut.

Despite all the struggling from before, now McGucket stood relatively still, surrendering under Bill's white blade.

"Now, killing is quite easy, Pine Tree. See, just do  _this."_

Bill forced Dipper's hand to jerk to the side, slitting McGucket's throat.

McGucket choked on his own blood as it poured from the slit in his throat and bubbled and frothed at his lips.

Sneering in disgust, Pyronica released McGucket so he slumped to the ground.

"NO!" Dipper gasped with a sob. All strength left his body as he stared at the still, broken body of McGucket-one of his Great Uncle Ford's closest friends.

His hand had been forced. God, had it been  _forced._ But still.

He had killed somebody.

Behind Dipper, Bill cackled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kinda short, sorry about that! I think the rest of these chapters will be on the shorter side, but what can ya do?
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


	12. Τιμωρία

Dipper didn't think. No words bubbled and frothed in his head as he scrambled back up to his feet. A sudden energy had taken ahold of him, lighting his nerves on fire. His vision, red as blood, blurred as he whipped around on his heel, and flung his fist forward.

Bill's entire head snapped to the side as Dipper's knuckles collided with their lower jaw. Though Dipper just managed to clip Bill, the shock of violence wracked Bill's body.

Catching themselves on their heels, Bill carefully and all too slowly, brought their own fingers up to brush along their jaw.

"You- you  _hit_ me," Bill whispered.

True, Dipper's punch had been a good one, but with the amount of strength he had, Bill knew their skin wouldn't bruise.

Still, that was beyond the point. The fact of the matter was that Dipper just  _punched_ them, and had intended to  _hurt_ them.

Laughter bubbled in the back of Bill's throat, ugly and dissonant, like a thousand lonely screams.

"Oh, Pine Tree, Pine Tree. You shouldn't have done that," Bill growled.

The anger that clearly blinded Dipper disappeared. His eyes cleared, fear overtaking the rage. His mouth fell open in a twisted O of horror. He managed to take half a step backward before Bill leapt forward.

Bill's sword clattered to the ground as Bill flashed their claws forward. They grazed Dipper's cheek as they slapped Dipper hard across the face, sending him reeling and nearly tumbling back onto the ground.

The anger still pumping through Dipper's veins dulled the stinging sensation of pain. Dipper struggled to scramble back up to his feet to return Bill's onslaught of violence with violence of his own, but before Dipper could do so, Bill pounced on him again.

Bill's knuckles collided against the side of Dipper's head. A bruise would bloom there. Lightning streaked across Dipper's brain at the punch. In retaliation, Dipper arched his leg up, catching Bill around the ankle, sending them to the floor.

Dipper barely dodged a blur of pink as Pyronica darted out to snag him. Instead, Dipper flung himself on top of Bill. Tightening his hands into fists, Dipper punched Bill again in the face.

Then again, then again, but on his third punch, Bill wriggled a hand up, and grasped his wrist in an iron grip.

"Gettin' your anger out on me, huh?" Bill growled with a sneer. "Well, this has been fun, Pine Tree, but you're getting a little too cocky for my tastes!"

Bill's hand flashed with cerulean flames while they shattered Dipper's wrist in their tightened fist.

Pure agony ripped through Dipper. His entire face contorted with pain. With a deafening wail, Dipper crumpled on Bill's chest, squirming as tears streamed down his cheeks. Words tried to force their way out of his mouth, but nothing but screams left him.

Even Bill's cruel cackling couldn't quite down out Dipper's caterwauling.

"Done now, Pine Tree?" Bill whispered into Dipper's ear as they  _finally_ let go of his wrist.

Dipper tried to cradle his wrist close to his body, but it was nigh impossible. Second degree burns laced his skin. Angry, gleaming patches of red glared at Dipper while a couple of burning fleshy bubbles threatened to pop. Heat radiated out from the wounds, as if from his very broken skeleton.

Any time  _anything_ brushed the wounds, another flaming sensation of agony would rock Dipper, drawing out more tears.

Atop the burns on his flesh, Dipper knew his wrist was shattered, shards of bone stabbing into him from the inside.

Dipper collapsed into a puddle of tears, blood, and agony.

"It seems you are," Bill said with another laugh. They waved a hand at Pyronica. "Almost ready?"

She nodded once "Yes, ser! We can head out whenever you're ready!"

Bill flashed her a wolfish grin. "Good. Give me one second. I have an idea on what we can do with our little Pine Tree here…."

~~0~~0~~0~~

Besides the crunching of Bill and Pyronica's feet against the grass, all Dipper could hear was the sound of Pyronica chewing on rations.

He had been tied to Bill's chest, his hands bound in front of him, which did nothing but aggravate Dipper's wounded wrist. Pain never stopped licking him since the hour they had set off, which led to Dipper fading in and out of consciousness as agony lapped at him, briefly drowning him only for him to resurface yet again.

The one good thing the pain did, however, was keep Dipper from thinking about how empty his own stomach was.

Another grunt of pain escaped Dipper as a whimper. The rope Bill had used to bound his wrists popped one of those fleshy bubbles on his hand. Plasma and blood soaked into the material of the rope and dripped down his hand, making it itch maddeningly atop the pain.

Black spots danced in Dipper's eyes once more. He fought to keep his head up, to keep the growing Fearymid in his sights as they all drew closer to the heart of The Nightmare Realm and thus, Gravity Falls.

But no matter how hard he fought, how hard he struggled to hold on, Dipper found himself slipping back under those bloody waves of agony and into a cooling and relatively painless slumber.

~~0~~0~~0~~

As Bill and Pyronica grew closer to the Fearymid, the clouds above swirled, arcs of lightning threatening to crack through the sky and shatter the clouds to rain blood.

The reek of burning flesh and fetid meat hung in the air, but Bill grinned and inhaled sharply.

"I can taste it now, Pyronica," Bill cackled. "Right above us."

Bill stepped into the shadow of the Fearymid.

Pyronica shot Bill a wide grin of her own, but kept her nose plugged and scrunched up. "Ser, what will you wish for with your Eye? What dreams will you make reality?"

Bill paused, unable to answer Pyronica right away. Indeed, their original plans had been derailed by the child currently strapped to their chest.

This child, who swore to kill them, yet who cried and shook at the sight of death, and was the first to fling fists once life was torn from the world.

A shiver wracked Bill, not an entirely unpleasant one, and the same feeling that a man once named Tad Strange gave them trickled through them, like blood dripping from a laceration.

Pine Tree-Dipper-had been plaguing and haunting their mind for days now. Seeing him grown into a  _proper_ Pine Tree, seeing him bloom and regain his memories, lit a fire in the pit of Bill's belly.

Now that Bill had Dipper, they never wanted to let go. No, their newfound obsession encompassed them completely. Need and hunger to keep the child close, to be able to torture him, to ravish his body and lips, sent a thrill of titillation down Bill's spine.

Eventually, Bill found themselves answering Pyronica's question with quite the cryptic answer; "you'll see, my lil' first mate. You'll see."

Originally, Bill had been planning to wish for one thing only: to transcend into proper godhood. To hold all the powers of this universe and beyond, to be more than a hungering demon between dimensions, fighting tooth and nail with every other version of themselves.

But now, with Dipper strapped across their chest, lingering under the deep, inky shadow of the Fearymid, Bill knew they only wanted one thing in the world now.

For Pine Tree to be their sapling. Forever.

Bill unfurled their wings, which failed to glitter under darkness. The shifting movement roused Dipper from his sleep, and he squirmed against Bill's chest as soft sounds poured from his lips.

"It's time." Bill bared a most wolf-like and hungering grin. "Pyronica. Take the child. I am going to get what is rightfully mine. Stay here and protect him."

Pyronica nodded. Dipper, too groggy to fight back much, was passed from Bill to Pyronica without too much trouble.

Bill stared into Dipper's deep brown eyes. Sleep slowly drained from them, but now he was tied up safely at Pyronica's feet.

Crouching down, Bill cupped Dipper's cheeks in their clawed hands.

Dipper groaned. "Bill…."

"Stay here," Bill murmured. "I shall be back soon. Then, we can have some  _more_ fun together."

Dipper blinked rapidly. "More fun? What-"

Before Dipper could finish his sentence, however, Bill's lips crashed against his, stealing his first kiss away in a frenzy of tongue and teeth.

Dipper cried out helplessly. Bill tasted of iron and blood. In the second Dipper had his mouth open, Bill was able to slip their long, black, forked tongue into his mouth with ease, tasting them thoroughly.

Dipper swore he was about to vomit right then and there.

When Bill finally pulled back, they left Dipper sputtering in disgust and gasping for air. Catching Pyronica's expression from the corner of their eye, Bill noticed that even she looked a little sickened.

Bill grinned to themselves. Good.

"Well then," Bill said in the resounding silence. "I shall be off." With one powerful flap of their wings, they flung themselves into the air.

~~0~~0~~0~~

Repulsion still wracked Dipper long after Bill left. That putrid taste still lingered in his mouth, and no matter how much Dipper spit, he just couldn't get it to leave.

Bill Cipher. That disgusting captain. He would kill him. He  _would!_ And he had to do it  _now._ Only  _now._

If Bill Cipher got their Eye back…. Dipper didn't even want to know what would happen. Now that most, if not all, of his memories had returned, he knew that once Bill got their Eye, they would be unstoppable.

Dipper, shoving the disgust still shaking him to the back of his mind, peered up at Pyronica. Left all alone, she leaned heavily on one leg, staring out blankly in the distance as she lit a cigarette hanging from her plump lips.

Her fake wings were still folded up against her back.

Dipper gulped. He had been tied up tight, but there was one thing he hadn't revealed to Bill nor Pyronica now that his memories had returned. One thing he  _knew_ neither of them knew.

And that was, of course, his leaking memories of learning fledgling magic.

He had been training himself as fast as possible back when the Weirdness first struck Gravity Falls. Of course, what he knew could barely fill a page of a journal, but nevertheless, he did know  _one_ spell. One simple spell that could  _easily_ snap through the rope that bound him.

However, Dipper knew the same spell, the only real spell he knew, in fact, could not stop Pyronica. If only he had one of his Great Uncle's journals, and then he could have cast a spell to raise the dead or  _something_ to take out Pyronica!

Nevertheless, he did not. Thus, Dipper had only his own mind and watery memories to rely on.

His spell wouldn't affect Pyronica much. In fact, she could probably counter it easily. However, if there was one thing Dipper had on his side, it was surprise.

If he could snap through his binds, then rip one of Pyronica's daggers from her belt, then he could- could-

Dipper gulped.

He was about to do it. Kill someone. Said someone was a  _terrible_ someone, said someone worked from the murderer  _Bill Cipher_ of all people, but  _still._

Dipper shook his head at himself. He had already killed someone. His hand had been forced, true, but he had already killed someone. He was already stained.

Besides, killing  _one_ bad person to then go on and kill  _another_ bad person to save lives… well, that was a heroic deed, was it not? Sacrificing two terrible lives to save innocent lives was  _worth it,_ right?

Doubt in the back of Dipper's mind reminded him that he couldn't just compare lives like that. Couldn't just say one was more just than another, even if that life belonged to that of a scoundrel.

Dipper politely tucked that little seed of doubt back into the recesses of his mind. Doubt led to hesitation. Hesitation would lead to  _his_ death and failure.

He couldn't afford that. No one could.

Besides, after his two deeds were done, after he killed both Pyronica and Bill, he would kill himself. Three less murderers in the world.

Dipper grimaced to himself. Besides him, Pyronica was completely zoned out, taking drag after drag off her cigarette.

He had to act now, while she was distracted.

Three. Two. One. Dipper counted down in his head.

_Now!_

From Dipper's palms, green flames sparked. He couldn't even catch the rope alight, but the meek power behind the flames was just enough to snap the binds tying him.

Pyronica didn't even notice, too taken in by the sweet taste of her cigarette.

Dipper tensed, adrenaline pumping through his veins. She'd notice him as soon as his fingers brushed against her hip for her dagger.

As soon as he grasped the dagger, he couldn't waste any time getting it out and aiming the blade in an uppercut toward her stomach.

Luckily for Dipper, Pyronica's dagger rested in a simple sheath of leather. He'd have to grab the hilt, twirl it in his hand so it pointed upwards, then strike.

Unfortunately for Dipper, however, he never learned how to wield a knife. Throw a decent punch? Well, his Grunkle Stan had made  _sure_ he knew how to do that one. But even he had never gotten around to show Dipper how to properly use a blade.

Still, that didn't mean he couldn't  _try,_ but if he allowed Pyronica to knock the dagger from his wrist, it'd be over for him.

Twisting his body around ever so slowly, his eyes trained on Pyronica's jawline to make sure she didn't notice him, Dipper reached out, his fingers hovering above Pyronica's hip.

_Now!_

Dipper's fingers grasped the hilt. In one jagged movement, he flicked the dagger into his palm, nearly dropping it as he unsheathed it.

Pyronica, of course, noticed  _this,_ and she dropped her cigarette. "Hey-! Brat!" she snarled.

Much to Dipper's delight, and shock, Pyronica didn't automatically swing her fist at him, or aim at knocking the stolen dagger from his hand. Instead, she pawed at the empty sheath where her dagger once rested.

 _An automatic response,_ Dipper thought in awe and in hope.

Dipper scrambled up to his feet, his grip on the dagger tight. His hand shook like mad and was slicked in sweat, but neither of those things stopped Dipper as he hurled the blade of the dagger forward.

Except, no flash of blood greeted his eyes. At the last second, Pyronica weaved out of the way.

She pulled her lips back, baring her teeth in a snarl. Instead of looking intimidating, however, she looked utterly ridiculous.

Dipper supposed only a monster like Bill could snarl like that and be intimidating.

"Give that back!" she roared. Magenta flames curled out from her palm in twin suns.

"No!" Dipper yelled back, like some child. He shook harder now.

He couldn't allow the blade to get knocked out of his hand. He couldn't allow his one good hand to be hurt.

Thank the Heavens he was ambidextrous.

Pyronica snapped forward to strike at his wrists-most likely to grab ahold and twist it to force him to drop her dagger-but Dipper kept his grip tight and squirmed out of the way just in time. He fell onto one knee in front of her.

"Stupid!" Pyronica laughed. "Captain Cipher may not approve of me  _killing_ you, but I'm sure they won't mind me  _blinding_ you!" Holding out two flaming fingers, she aimed them both at Dipper's eyes, ready to both pierce and sear them both.

Dipper, fear flooding every sense he had, acted without thinking. Pyronica, who grinned at the frozen look of fear in Dipper's eyes, didn't expect a frigid metal blade to suddenly plunge upwards into her sternum.

Nor did she expect the blade to tear downwards, slitting her entire belly in two.

Pyronica's flames extinguished without even a single whisper of noise. She choked on her own blood as it rushed into her mouth. The crimson liquid spilled over her bottom lip, staining her chin.

All strength drained from her as she collapsed into a heap right in front of Dipper.

Dipper scrambled back from Pyronica, his eyes wide in horror at the grisly wound now bared to him. Under the shadow of the Fearymid, Pyronica's blood shone burgundy and the wound black.

The dagger, which Dipper had accidentally left buried inside of Pyronica's navel, fell as she convulsed. More blood poured from where it had been.

Dipper found himself tearing his eyes away, stumbling backward away from Pyronica, only to fall back onto his knees and vomit. He hadn't had the chance to fill his concaving stomach with much food, so what mostly poured from Dipper's lips was sticky, burning bile.

Even after the bile left him, Dipper dry-heaved until his stomach hurt and his eyes watered. Scrambling back to his feet on shaky knees, Dipper slowly turned back to the now stilled body of Pyronica.

He gulped seeing the blood spilled onto the ground, gagged on the stench of death that now wafted from her body, but nevertheless, Dipper crept forward and peeled her mechanical wings from her back.

It took several tries to undo the harness-thank the heavens he hadn't damaged it-and held the contraption close to his chest. It was lighter than Dipper had figured it to be, and it only took a couple of tries to strap the wings to his own back.

He fiddled with the harness so the wings would fit snug against his back. Small buttons and levers were located on the shoulders.

After the wings nearly took off his head from pressing the wrong button, Dipper finally got the wings to unfold from his back and ready for flight. Like Bill's real wings, the golden metal of the fake wings did not glitter in the shade of the Fearymid.

Dipper gulped, the magic pumping through the contraption heating up the middle of his back a little. Hesitating for just one moment, Dipper quickly scooped Pyronica's dagger up. Her blood still dripped from its blade as he hooked it to his belt.

It was now or never.

Fiddling a bit with the levers once again, Dipper finally got himself lifted into the air with a powerful flap of the metal wings. Wind blew Dipper's hair back, chilling his face as he shot upward toward the entrance of the Fearymid.

 _I'm coming after you, Bill,_ Dipper thought.  _I am going to stop you!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Icarus is officially finished now! The last chapter and epilogue need some kinda major edits as I finished both right before going to work so was kinda rushing, but for the most part, Icarus is complete!
> 
> I'm gonna try and upload the last two chapters a few days apart both to help pace myself and 'cause I may be too busy to really sit down and do proper edits. We'll see.
> 
> Anyways! We really are reaching the end here! The next chapter has the climax and I hope all of you are prepared for it~
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


	13. Διακοπή

Anxiety bubbled in the pit of Dipper's stomach as he landed within a wide, gaping opening in the side of the Fearymid. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he fiddled with the mechanical wings to shut them off, and squirmed out of the harness.

The inside of the Fearymid wasn't like what Dipper was expecting. Blood didn't drip from the walls, corpses weren't piled high or anything. The walls were pure obsidian brick, blacker than any void or night Dipper could imagine. Instead of mortar, liquid neon lights flashed between each individual brick, like thousands of auras melting into one.

Dipper rubbed his skin. Despite the hazy heat peeling sweat from his pores, shivers still wracked his body, and gooseflesh still prickled his arms.

Inside the Fearymid, any semblance of a pyramid-like structure had been lost. A maze of hallways and intersections branched off into the far distance while stairs leading to absolutely nowhere hung above him, void of any life or even dust.

Dipper gulped. He tried to focus on any sound whatsoever, on the clicking of heels or even Bill's wild laughter, but nothing met his ears but silence.

Placing his hand on the right wall, Dipper began to trudge forwards into the darkness of the Fearymid.

As a child, he had always been good at puzzle games. Sudoku, word puzzles, crosswords, and even cereal box mazes.

Of course, said cereal box mazes always gave him the advantage as he saw the maze from above, not within.

Still, even so, Dipper knew the basics of keeping track of himself while within a maze. True, he had no idea where the Eye was, but Dipper could hazard a pretty good guesstimate that it was in the center of the Fearymid.

Which, of course, meant trying to figure out which stairs actually led to the next level and which just led to nowhere.

Furthermore, the further Dipper walked, keeping half his mind on his position and where he figured the Eye could be, the more Dipper realized that tromping around in forests wasn't too unlike what he was doing now. Greenery and treebark looked all the same once staring at it long enough, but Dipper could recall with a surprisingly clarity that making his way through the maze of crunchy grass and underbrush had always been almost second-nature to him.

Of course, a maze of stairs and black brick was nothing like the forest that he had played in, which was currently burned to ash below him, but Dipper held onto the memory like a lifeline. Using it to keep his increasing fears at bay and his head level, he trailed down several hallways, up many flights of stairs only to turn back as the steps twisted upside down, making them impossible to continue walking on.

After meeting several more walls and drops where the stairs ended hanging in mid-air near the ceiling, Dipper decided to try and get closer to the middle before journeying up the stairs once more.

Dipper cursed himself. How long had he been tramping around? Bill could already have their Eye and be doing… who knows  _what_ with it!

Dipper broke into a run. He  _had_ to find Bill! Had to stop them!

His own footsteps reverberated around him as his run splintered into an outright sprint. Breaths huffing from his mouth, his cheeks puffing out every time he sucked a new mouthful of burning arid air into his lungs, the edges of hysteria touched Dipper's mind as he flung himself down another hallway and then up another flight of stairs. His ankles ached as they hit the steps.

In the whorl of darkness, the shocking sight of red paralyzed Dipper. He stumbled and tripped into the second floor of the Fearymid.

The air was crushed out of Dipper's lungs as he fell onto his hands and knees panting. The red light pouring from an eye-shaped window on the back wall burned into his retinas. He blinked madly in a desperate attempt to get the tears out of his eyes.

"Pine Tree? What are-" Bill's question broke into laughter.

Dipper heaved. Gulping in another burning breath, he scrambled back up to his feet.

The room he stood in was completely bare beyond the stepped dias near the back of the room, in front of the window. An odd, sharp throne sat nearly alone. If Dipper peered closer, he could see it was made out of one thing-human remains.

Another memory burst forth then; of Bill Cipher dominating the town, of them vaporizing people Dipper had known all his life to bones to create his macabre seat.

Sickness nearly clawed at Dipper's throat again, but his stomach had nothing left to give, not even bile. A disgusted huff poured from Dipper's mouth instead.

Sitting atop the throne was the Eye.

Dipper had thought the eye to be a less… literal thing, if he were being honest with himself. He had thought it to be a treasure or a tool of some kind, not a quite literal eye. From where he stood, he couldn't make out more details beyond it blinking at him and the golden ichor still dripping from the entrails behind it.

"I'm here to stop you," Dipper gasped, leveling a hot glare at Bill. They stood right before the dias, turned to him now.

"Of course you are! I don't even know why I expected anything less from you, Pine Tree!" Bill's eyes wandered from Dipper's harsh expression to the bloodied dagger resting at his hip.

Bill's grin turned predatory. "And I see you have already taken care of Pyronica."

They stepped closer to Dipper. It took all of Dipper's will to not step back.

"Did you kill her?" Bill breathed, licking their lips with their long, forked, black tongue. Their one human eye glinted. The other, resembling a spyglass, shone a reflected blood-crimson.

"Did her blood wash over your hands? Did you  _feel_ her life seep from her as you attacked her?" Bill's words poured from their mouth faster and faster as they drew closer and closer to Dipper. Their wings twitched, the feathers puffing out if only a little.

Dipper shivered as those memories from not so long ago pierced him. "None of that matters," he muttered.

Bill stood only a few feet away from Dipper now. Taller, larger than life, bearing down on him with an expression Dipper could not place. Their fangs glimmered as they grinned, and yet they seemed too comical; too  _amused_ by the death of their first mate.

It was a similar expression they held before. When  _kissing_ him. When slaughtering those kids onboard.

"I can't hear you, Pine Tree. What was that?" Bill's arms encircled Dipper's waist and they pulled him close, cupping his cheek with a single palm. Their black claws brushed against his soft cheek.

Prickles ran down DIpper's spine.

"None of that  _matters!"_ Dipper roared in Bill's face. He whipped the dagger out, ready to bury it into Bill's sternum.

But before he could, Bill slithered away.

"Ack!" Dipper cried out as one of Bill's hands encircled his throat. Somehow, they had twisted their body around his own, and now stood directly behind him. Gold flashed in Dipper's peripherals as they drew their wings around Dipper, effectively trapping him.

"Did you really think it would be that  _easy?"_ Bill snarled. "That you would be able to use a  _dagger_ of all things to  _kill_ me?" In a flash, Bill used one of their wings to knock the dagger from Dipper's shaky grip. With a kick from their long, muscled leg, they sent it skittering across the floor and out of sight.

Dipper gulped.

"I am eternal! I am more than just a  _pirate,_ a  _demon,_ or a  _devil!_ I am a  _god!"_

"No!" Dipper gasped, squirming as hard as he could in Bill's tight grip. "You're nothing! You're a  _bilge rat_ who's far from home and  _lost!_ That's what you are!"

Bill's grip somehow tightened further and Dipper swore the remaining life he had was about to be strangled from him. Something hot and sticky-blood-bubbled in the back of his throat, and his eyes rolled up in the back of his head.

But as the little light flickered in Dipper's vision, he heard, faint and far away, Bill curse under their breath.

Dipper groaned as he was thrown across the room. He rolled arm-over-arm, and stilled in a sweaty entanglement of limbs. His skin burned from the friction against the ground. His broken hand, which still ached, started throbbing even more.

Something rang in his ears as he picked his head up slowly, black dots still popping in and out of his sight. The sound of echoing footsteps made Dipper flinch as Bill strode past him, keeping their spyglass eye trained on him.

"I wanted to be a god. I  _want_ to be a god," Bill growled. "Before you came in. Before you fucked everything up for me!"

Dipper wasn't so sure, but somehow he had been moved from being collapsed onto the floor to being back into Bill's arms. This time, however, Bill held him up by the front of his shirt. His toes nearly touched the ground, and Dipper found himself to worried about finding purchase under his feet then actually landing a punch on Bill.

"Now? Now all I want is- is  _you!_ A lowly  _stupid_ human who wants to kill me!" Bill bared their ivory fangs again. "At first, I was amused. Amused by you wanting to kill me. Fuck, I'm still a little amused! You killed! You killed Pyronica, my best pirate!"

Low laughter rumbled in Bill's chest, or perhaps it was a growl. Dipper couldn't quite tell.

"But what doesn't amuse me anymore is this." Bill rattled Dipper.

Dipper whimpered.

"Is you still going against me. It's fun, it's amusing, yes! But  _this?_ Making me now want- want you and not my godhood? Now, that is too far, Pine Tree!" Bill sighed through their nose. "But I figured it out, Pine Tree. Once I become a god in this world, then-"

"If- if your eye-" Dipper gasped, his words barely a whisper. "If your eye-"

Bill paused, uncertain whether or not to prompt Dipper. After a few more seconds, he pressed his arm under Dipper's rump, and pulled him close to their chest, carrying him like a babe.

"If my eye-?" Bill carded their claws through Dipper's hair.

"If your eye grants godhood, how did you even fail before?" Dipper bared his teeth. "You're false. A false god. And even if you have your eye back, you'll still be a false god."

Dipper was stiff in Bill's arms, but nevertheless he pressed his forehead against Bill's chest, curling closer into Bill. "I'm tired," he whined.

Bill hesitated, but then turned and began meandering back to the dias.

"All gods are false as all gods are true, Pine Tree. Matters on your reality."

Staccato steps reverberated in the throne room. They didn't harmonize with Dipper's small whimpers of pain.

"In another realm, another  _dimension,_ I was a god. I was free to do as I pleased. I burned that dimension to the ground."

Dipper mouthed the word  _dimension._ It felt alien on his tongue.

"And yet, this realm. This dimension. It is like a prison. It is too rigid. Boring. Bland. But, not everything is like that. Your Great Uncle Ford wasn't like that." Bill grew tense. "You're not like that."

They were halfway to the dias now.

"I'm not?" Dipper slurred. He sounded as if he were falling asleep to Bill.

Bill pressed a chaste kiss to the top of Dipper's head. "No, my little Pine Tree. You're not. This place doesn't have to be, either. If I were in charge, if I could mold this place to my will as I did back  _home,"_ Bill sneered the word  _home_ as if it were a curse, "then things would be better. If I were a god, things would be worthwhile. Everything would be worthwhile."

"The Weirdness. That was you waging war."

Bill chuckled. "In a way. Is it waging war when one destroys an ant pile on their land, or isn't it just getting rid of pests?"

"So I'm a pest." Dipper hid his face more into Bill, hiding the concentration that pressed his lips into a thin line and his calculating eyes.

"Not you, no. You can be, but you're not a pest like the rest of the mindless buffons wandering around this realm."

Bill stepped onto the first step of the dias.

"There is more to it than that. Here, I am nothing but a demon and a devil. A scourge, something to be feared, but I am not an idea. I am a person to be feared, and those are singular, out of mind when people don't see me in any capacity. Ideas, though, people always fear ideas. Ideas are eternal while people are not."

"You're not a person, though." Dipper shifted a bit in Bill's arms. They were both on the dias now. The Eye was close.

"No. I shall be a god. Unlike all the other Bill's out wandering other realms. I shall be the first."

"Other Bill's?" Dipper turned his face to the side. Now, they stood directly over the throne. Beneath, he could see the Eye.

Bill stared at their Eye as well. However, they didn't move out to take it.

"There are millions of me's, as there are millions of you's, and every other person alive, dead, or something in between, born or not born. However, no Bill has ever risen to godhood. None."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Because if one of us  _had_ risen to godhood, I doubt I would be standing here discussing it, as I doubt you would be. If one of us were a true god, then nothing else would exist."

Dipper opened his mouth, the contradictions and paradoxes filling his brain threatening to burst. However, instead, he stared up into Bill's mismatching eyes.

For once, there was no amusement. No sparkle. Nothing but raw honesty stared back at Dipper.

Dipper's one good hand traveled up from where it had been curled against Bill's chest to gently cup their attractive face.

Dipper parted his lips. "I see," he said. Then, Dipper leaned in, and pressed his lips against Bill's.

Their lips gave away easily under Dipper's, yet held their own shape and sensation. Bill kissed back  _hard,_ gasping hot and putrid air into Dipper's mouth. Their taste spilled into Dipper, filled him up, and Dipper moaned softly.

Bill shivered as Dipper's arms parted, stretching around their torso in a hug. They crushed Dipper closer to their chest, deepening and overtaking the kiss.

Before Bill could slip their tongue down Dipper's throat, before they could even fathom a thought about anything at all, Dipper grinned against their lips, pulled himself away from Bill. Keeping his legs wrapped tight around their waist, Dipper fell back, his shoulder blades landing hard against the edge of the throne. With his one good hand, Dipper pawed for the Eye.

Dipper's yellowed teeth shone in his grimy mouth. "You idiot," he laughed.

Bill stiffened, their eyes widening. Their arms fell slack, sending Dipper tumbling to the ground. But that didn't matter now.

For grasped in Dipper's hand was their Eye. Their bloody, blinking eye.

"No," Bill gasped. They bared a wolfish snarl, their one eyebrow furrowing in rage. "No-!"

Dipper glanced down at the Eye in his hand. It pulsated like a heartbeat in the palm of his hand, warm and almost comforting. The pupil that stared back at him was as black as night while a ring of gold, pale yellow, and ivory flecks that reminded Dipper of faraway stars encircled the pupil. It stared up at him in  _fear._

Peering up at Bill, Dipper noted that they wore the exact same expression the Eye in his hand wore.

Though Dipper couldn't be sure of all the power Bill's lost Eye had, if any at all. But squeezing it in his palm, Dipper didn't so much recall as instinctively  _know_ what the Eye could be used for.

Godhood. The ability to rewrite world history in the world they stood in now, a physical realm, not one of dreams where nothing made sense.

A physical realm, like many other physical realms, all interlocked.

In a blink, Dipper knew it all. With a kiss, he ascended to godhood.

Then, Dipper said one thing to the eye, less with his lips and more with his intent.

" _Bill Cipher."_

His not-voice echoed in his chest, reverberated against the world, like plucked strings on a horse-hair harp.

Dipper's wants fueled his not-voice, but he made no wish. No  _wish_ of anything. His words wove reality and thus, when he said, " _Captain Bill Cipher, you were never born,"_ they became real.

The world shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man sorry this was so short but I hope it was tense enough for you guys! I had a lot of fun writing it! And now all that's left to post is the epilogue~ I'll try and get it edited and posted sometime this week!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


	14. Πραγματικότητα

__Dipper peeled his eyes open, warm sunlight filtering through his window, dappling the floorboards with golden whorls. His worn, but comfortable bed called for more dozing sleep, but the happy screeches outside from his sister called to something else.

Scrambling up, Dipper paused, placing his hand on his forehead, cradling his head. The sound of another joyful scream pierced his ears, unlocking his shackles of sleep, and chasing away the fog of the nightmare he had.

Dipper couldn't quite recall when the nightmares started or stopped. Some days he had them, others he did not. Though the nightmare remained the same every time, Dipper always found himself unable to grasp onto it as he woke fully, and it slipped between the cracks of wakefulness and rest into limbo, lost forever.

Perhaps one day he would catch the nightmare and what happened during it, or maybe such a childish thing would fade as he ages.

After all, his and Mabel's birthday was rearing its head. Thirteen was the mark of the teenager, not the child, and he was long ready to put away childish things such as silly nightmares.

It took only seconds to pluck clothes he had worn the day before off the ground and get changed, and only several more minutes to run downstairs. Dipper waved hello to his father, who cleaned dishes as he picked up some toast, and then another to Grunkle Stan as he tried to get yet another poor customer to buy some junk in the shop he ran.

Running outside, into the open world, Dipper stared up at the blue sky of Gravity Falls with a beaming smile.

There was not a cloud in the sky. All he could see were the far-away forms of ships sailing through the air. Even from afar, light glinted from dull hulls and machinery. His heart pounded in his chest at the sight.

"Bro-bro! You finally awake, huh?" Mabel barreled over to his side, her pet pig, Waddles, nipping at her heels as he oinked happily.

"What can I say? I was up late last night doing work!" Dipper laughed, catching his sister around the waist before playfully pushing her away.

"Reading mystery novels isn't  _work."_

"Yeah it is!"

Waddles oinked, wanting to join in on the conversation.

"See? Even Waddles agrees with me!" Dipper laughed.

"No, he's taking  _my_ side!"

Waddles oinked again, then ran a circle around both twins. Mabel and Dipper laughed watching her pig run with its tiny legs.

"Hey, is Wendy still in town?" Dipper asked. Indeed, the sun had almost reached its peak in the firmament.

Mabel flashed her white teeth in a sparkling grin. "I think so!"

Wendy had gone off not too long ago on adventures on a trading ship, part of "growing up" she had said, though Dipper suspected it was more like her sneaking off under her father, Manly Dan's, nose more than anything else.

Still, she came back into town when she could, always helping her captain sell fabulous treasures and useful goods.

"Let's go see, then! Before she leaves again," Dipper said, taking off into a run down the dirt path toward the sleepy town of Gravity Falls. Mabel nipped at his heels as she followed with a shriek of agreement.

Dipper couldn't help the little pinprick of jealousy that pierced his heart as they found her stall at the base of the mountains, which served as Gravity Falls' docks. If only  _he_ were old enough to sail in the open sky and go on wonderful adventures such as her!

The little table that was set up was mostly barren-they must have set up in the morning. Currently, only Wendy maned the stall, sitting in a chair and leaning back, reading some book or another about avoiding eye contact.

"Wendy!" Mabel called out. "You're still here!"

Wendy jerked to attention, and a wide smile stretched across her face. She put her book down. "Yeah, I am! But we're about to take the stall down and start preparing the ship for sailing again." She set her book to the side and happily reached over the table to give each twin a hug. "It was good seeing both of you again."

Mabel nodded in agreement, her smile falling a little. "Yeah. It was good seeing you again, too. I wish you could stay longer with us and go adventuring with us…."

Wendy sighed and ruffled Mabel's hair. "I know. But hey! When you two are fifteen, you'll be able to start sailing too, if you want! Maybe I could even convince Captain Strange for you to join our crew."

Both twins brightened at that prospect.

Wendy, noticing their expressions, winked. "Just watch out for nasty pirates in the meantime."

Mabel laughed at the little joke, but Dipper found his smile disappearing as a shiver wracked him.

Pirates.

_Yeah._

"So, do you have any cool wares?" Dipper asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Wendy tapped her chin. "We sold the last of our interesting wares this morning, I'm afraid. Besides some rations, rope, and bullets we don't got much."

"Oh." Mabel deflated a little. She had wanted to see gleaming baubles and beautiful, finely crafted jewelry.

Wendy hummed. "Well, we sold  _most_ our things. I do have one item that could be considered treasure. I have  _no_ idea why Captain Strange told me to sell it for such a high price, it's not actually worth that, I think."

Mabel tilted her head to the side. "What thing?" she asked.

Wendy held up a finger, then went and dug around in a nearby crate for the object. She pinched it between her fingers, and pulled it out.

A long golden feather.

Dipper froze, ice water filling his veins, and for what reason, he couldn't place.

It was just a feather. Most likely from an eagle of some kind. But as Dipper eyed it, he couldn't help but think it had to have come from one  _large_ eagle.

"A feather? Wait, is it made of real gold?" Mabel gasped, reaching over the table, trying to grasp it.

Dipper found himself taking a step back. He couldn't tear his eyes away from how the feather glittered in the sunlight. A terrible, dreadful feeling grasped his heart in a frigid, clawed hand. He couldn't place it, but his instincts warned him away from such a terrible object.

"I doubt it. It feels like a normal feather, just happens to be this color. To be honest, I don't even remember where we picked it up. Captain Strange said it must belong to some rare creature, but didn't really say much beyond that."

"Oh. Maybe an eagle?" Mabel said.

"Maybe…." Wendy tilted her head and peered at the feather with squinted eyes. Eventually, her look of curiosity smoothed back into boredom, and she shrugged.

"How much?" Dipper finally said. He still hadn't torn his eyes from the feather. He couldn't.

Mabel gave her brother a surprised side-eye. "Don't tell me you wanna actually buy a  _feather!"_

Even Wendy frowned. "I have to agree with your sister. Captain Strange told me to sell this at no less than 500 gold pieces. You can't possibly have that kinda money. I doubt anyone but some collector would want this."

"Well, maybe I wanna collect that feather," Dipper fired back. He couldn't understand his own words pouring from his mouth, or why the need to  _have_ such a simple feather in his possession meant a great deal to him. "I'll start saving up now if you can hold onto it for me."

Wendy paused, then shrugged. "I can't see why not. Gold is gold. Sure, I'll hang onto it for you." She tucked the feather back into the crate.

Dipper shook his head, blinking hard.

"Anyways, I wish I could talk more, but I need to start packing things up," Wendy said with a sigh as she eyed the sky. "I promise I'll return soon, however!"

Mabel brightened at that. "Alright, Wendy! C'mon, bro-bro. Let's go back home."

Dipper blinked slowly, then turned away. "Yeah, home," he whispered mainly to himself. He shook his head quickly, dislodging his thoughts, and the sudden wonderment and dread that golden feather had instilled in him.

Today was a beautiful day, after all.

Dipper smiled at the thought.

"Hey, Mabel. Let's go adventure in the forest! I'll race you there!" Before Mabel could respond, Dipper took off running.

"Hey! No fair!" Mabel called after him, and gave chase. "Cheater!" Mabel yelled.

Dipper laughed loudly, and all thoughts and worries about the mysterious golden feather bled from his mind.

~~0~~0~~0~~

_~Fin~_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! Sorry this was so short, I have been way too busy to really sit down and write a long epilogue. Actually, funnily enough this was supposed to be posted like two days ago but oh well! It's posted now. 
> 
> I hope the ending was satisfying to everyone! It is up to reader interpretation as I made it a little vague on purpose, so yeah!
> 
> And, uh, I have written a lot of other fics, if you're into this pairing! Such as my Once Upon a Time Trilogy among other fics and oneshots, so yeah! Feel free to visit my profile to see my other BillDip fics and such!
> 
> Also! I have written a companion fic to this called Trapped By His Own Need. It's rated M as well and is about Tad and Bill's relationship before Tad left Bill, so if that kinda interests you, feel free to take a look! 
> 
> If you have any questions about this fic or its writing process, feel free to ask! 
> 
> Anyways! Thank you guys so much for your patience and especially those who have stayed around. I know this fic had a year-long hiatus during writing it, so I am grateful to anyone who has stayed around thus far and has finished it!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! And if you have favorited and followed, I thank you too! And lastly! To those who have left wonderful comments, I really thank you! Comments are what really keep me going at times and wanting to post, so I do appreciate those who leave me their thoughts. Speaking of, for those who haven't left a comment yet, I would really appreciate it if you did considering this is the last chapter and I won't be updating this fic again! Feel free to tell me what you like, dislike, and etc. about this fic! 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed Icarus! 
> 
> Stay classy folks!


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